It will be not just you, even the building where you reside will be assessed in terms of medical soundness. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) will conduct a health impact assessment survey of all the buildings and infrastructure in its bid to curb rising malaria cases.

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The idea was proposed by former consultant to the World Health Organisation Dr NL Kalra in the two-day workshop for management of Vector Borne Disease Control Programme. The move will be adopted by the civic administration as part of their ‘Mumbai Mantra’-Five point programme for malaria control.“Malaria is a complex issue for which we need a scientific and integrated approach. We need to upgrade our techniques to fight against malaria. Surveying the design of a building or a structure will help us in controling the breeding of mosquitoes. It will be of tremendous help to contain the disease,” said Additional Municipal Commissioner Manisha Mhaiskar.

Kalra stated that such an assessment survey should be mandatory for all development projects. “The move will help to study the dynamics of infrastructure boom on health issues. There needs to be a multi-department committee, wherein health and engineering section would study the impact of a specific building design.”

In 2010, thre were 145 deaths and 76,755 cases of malaria. However, the number of malaria cases dipped to 37,498 in 2011. There were 58 malaria deaths this year.

“This was possible due to corrective actions taken by the civic body to control the rising malaria cases. Properties were inspected. Elimination of vector at the source, early detection and surveillance of these structures helped us bring down the malaria cases,” Mhaiskar added. Moreover, the BMC will prepare a manual of all the standard operating procedures (SOP), which proved effective in malaria control this year.