Roll It Back
ONCE thought to have gone the way of dodo,
malaria has made quite a manifest comeback. It was thanks to the eradication of this
dreaded disease in the sixties in the plains that Nepalese could turn Terai into the
granary of the country. With intensive anti-malaria campaign through the Terai strip,
these plains became habitable and people from the hills up north moved down to live and
farm there. The single-most factor in populating the Terai is none other than the success
in malaria eradication and control. Large-scale malaria cases, it appeared, was generally
consigned to the pages of history. Indeed, malaria eradication campaigns were successful
in countries around the globe.
Considerable surprise, therefore, greeted the
comeback of malaria some years ago. The battle, it became clear, was far from won. Malaria
made a global return and Nepal too was not spared. Since the last six years, more and more
cases of malaria are being detected in Nepal. Cases of malaria has been detected in 64
districts, with 12 of them badly affected. According to an estimate, a whopping 16 per
cent of the Nepalese are believed to be vulnerable to the disease. Some 47,000 persons
with malaria symptoms visited hospitals in 1999. The foregoing sets of figures are more
than sufficient to underline that the disease has indeed come to haunt Nepal again. It
also underscores the fact that Nepal’s poor health service system, already grappling
with a swarm of other communicable diseases, is now having to carry the burden of malaria
also. Representatives from education, health, forest and communication sectors and donor
agencies discussed the issue the other day to formulate a strategy to scale down both the
mortality rate of the people suffering from malaria and the number of malaria patients.
The national task force on rolling back malaria is entrusted with the job of wrestling
with this new challenge to Nepal’s health care system. Evidently, the disease needs
to be attacked from different sides. While the government health agencies in the districts
have to be intensively engaged in measures like regular anti-mosquito spraying, awareness
towards simple measures like usage of mosquito nets have to be generated among the general
populace. Though it may be some time before the disease can be effectively controlled with
the galloping population and the climate change in favour of malaria-causing mosquitoes,
there is no reason why it cannot be contained to a large extent if extra, coordinated
efforts are undertaken.
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