Context: Recently, the World Health Organization released the World Malaria Report 2020.
Key highlights of the report

• It highlighted that in 2019, malaria cases globally numbered about 229 million which is an annual estimate that has remained virtually unchanged over the last four years.
• In 2019, the disease claimed about 409,000 lives, compared to 411,000 in 2018. 
• The countries in South-East Asia made particularly strong progress, with reductions in cases and deaths of 73 per cent and 74 per cent, respectively.
• The report said that the WHO South-East Asia Region accounted for about 3 per cent of the burden of malaria cases globally.
• The report noted that the 11 highest burden countries are Burkina Faso, Cameroon, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ghana, India, Mali, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Uganda and the United Republic of Tanzania.
• The highest burden countries account for 70 per cent of the global estimated case burden and 71 per cent of global estimated deaths from malaria.

India’s position in World Malaria Report 2020

• India contributed to the largest drop in cases region-wide i.e. from approximately 20 million to about 6 million.
• WHO noted the “impressive gains” made by India in the fight against malaria, with reductions in cases and deaths of 18 per cent and 20 per cent, respectively, over the last 2 years.
• India also recorded decrease in number of deaths from malaria between 2000 and 2019.
• The report highlighted that the malaria deaths in India declined from about 29,500 in 2000 to about 7700 last year.
• India still accounted for 88 per cent of malaria cases and 86 per cent of malaria deaths in the WHO South-East Asia Region in 2019.

Initiative taken by India to eliminate Malaria
National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030

• The National Framework for Malaria Elimination (NFME) 2016-2030 outlines India’s strategy for elimination of the disease by 2030.
• It is in line with the WHO Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016–2030 (GTS) and the Asia Pacific Leaders Malaria Alliance Malaria Elimination Roadmap.

The goals of the National Framework for Malaria Elimination in India 2016–2030 are

• Eliminate malaria (zero indigenous cases) throughout the entire country by 2030; and
• Maintain malaria–free status in areas where malaria transmission has been interrupted and prevent re-introduction of malaria.

The key objectives of the framework are

• Eliminate malaria from all low (Category 1) and moderate (Category 2) endemic states/UTs (26) by 2022.
• Reduce incidence of malaria to less than 1 case per 1000 population in all States/UTs and the districts and malaria elimination in 31 states/UTs by 2024.
• Interrupt indigenous transmission of malaria in all States/ UTs (Category 3) by 2027.
• Prevent re-establishment of local transmission of malaria in areas where it has been eliminated and to maintain malaria-free status of the country by 2030.
• Mera India: The Indian Council of Medical Research has launched the 'Malaria Elimination Research Alliance (MERA) India'.
• It is a conglomeration of partners working on malaria control in order to prioritise, plan and scale up research to eliminate the disease from India by 2030.

Additional Information
World Malaria Report

• It is published annually which provides a comprehensive update on global and regional malaria data and trends.
• The report tracks investments in malaria programmes and research as well as progress across all intervention areas i.e. prevention, diagnosis, treatment and surveillance.
• It also includes dedicated chapters on malaria elimination and on key threats in the fight against malaria.
• The report is based on information received from national malaria control programmes and other partners in endemic countries.