Indias War Against Malaria 1958

Malaria has been a problem in India for centuries. In the 1930s there was no aspect of life in the country that was not affected by malaria. In 1953, when 70 million cases and 0.8 million deaths occurred due to malaria, the National Malaria Control Program was created. India had started using DDT to control malaria in 1946. This program was renamed the National Malaria Eradication Program (NMEP) in 1958 due to the success of DDT and the commitment to malaria eradication in India at that time. The NMEP believed that it could eradicate malaria in seven to nine years, but malaria began to re-emerge in 1965. After 1965, malaria rates in India rose gradually and consistently with a peak of 6.47 million cases in 1976. This resurgence of malaria caused India to begin an attempt to control rather than eradicate malaria in 1977. For more information on Malaria and its control, go to http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/history/index.htm#tva and http://www.krepublishers.com/02-Journals/JHE/JHE-15-0-000-000-2004-Web/JHE-15... . This is clipped from the 1960s film Indias War Against Malaria available at the National Archives.

Category:

Education

Tags:

• National
• Malaria
• Eradication
• Program
• Mosquito
• Public
• Health
• India
• DDT
• pesticides
• hazard
• control
• resistance
• disease