Accepted for/Published in: JMIR Public Health and Surveillance
Date Submitted: Jun 18, 2023
Date Accepted: May 23, 2024
Contribution of travelers to Plasmodium vivax malaria in South West Delhi, India: a cross-sectional survey
ABSTRACT
Background:
India is committed to malaria elimination by the year 2030. According to the classification of malaria endemicity, the National Capital Territory of Delhi falls under category 1 with an Annual Parasite Incidence of <1 and was targeted for elimination by 2022. Among others, population movement across states is one of the key challenges for malaria control.
Objective:
This descriptive study attempts to assess the contribution of imported P. vivax cases to the malaria burden in South West Delhi.
Methods:
A cross-sectional study was carried out at the fever clinic of ICMR-National Institute of Malaria Research in South West Delhi from January 2017 to December 2019. Demographic and travel history data were recorded for all P. vivax, confirmed malaria cases diagnosed at the fever clinic. Vector and fever surveys along with reactive case detection were conducted in South West Delhi and Bulandshahr district of Uttar Pradesh, one of the 6 geographical sources for a high number of imported malaria cases.
Results:
A total of 355 Plasmodium vivax malaria cases were reported during the study period. The proportion of imported cases was 63%. Of these, 96% of cases were from Uttar Pradesh. The distribution of indigenous and imported malaria cases during the malaria transmission season revealed that imported malaria cases were significantly associated with travel during the transmission season. Surveys carried out in areas visited by ‘imported’ P. vivax malaria cases showed the presence of adults and larvae of Anopheles species and P. vivax parasitemia.
Conclusions:
Population movement is a key challenge for malaria elimination. There is a need to address the same to prevent the introduction and re-establishment of malaria in areas with very low or zero indigenous cases. Clinical Trial: Not applicable
Citation
Request queued. Please wait while the file is being generated. It may take some time.
Copyright
© The authors. All rights reserved. This is a privileged document currently under peer-review/community review (or an accepted/rejected manuscript). Authors have provided JMIR Publications with an exclusive license to publish this preprint on it's website for review and ahead-of-print citation purposes only. While the final peer-reviewed paper may be licensed under a cc-by license on publication, at this stage authors and publisher expressively prohibit redistribution of this draft paper other than for review purposes.