Malaria cases down by 50%: BMC

If the civic body’s health department is to be believed, the number of malaria cases in the city has come down by 50%. According to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation’s (BMC) fortnightly report, adoption of micro-mapping to detect the malaria trend in each ward has shown these results.

The downward trend, BMC claims, has been seen in the seven worst affected wards — F (south) in Parel, G (south) in Lower Parel, G (north) in Dadar (West), K (east) in Bandra (East), L ward in Kurla, E ward in Byculla and N ward in Ghatkopar (East).

“We are told that malaria cases have come down by 50%. The officers from pest control department go for surveillance at breeding sites once in seven days. Out of the 4,500 samples that were sent to Kalina laboratory, only 87 were tested positive,” said Parshuram Desai, member, civic public health committee.

There is a let up in the situation in A, B, D and E wards. In B ward, since July 15, 106 people were tested positive for malaria, but in the past 15 days only 87 were tested positive. In D ward, 458 were tested positive in the last fortnight, whereas in August the number of patients came down to 377.