Indian Study Shows Electronic Monitoring and Mapping Enables Malaria Management

The Indian national malaria control program has been using a Geographic Information System (GIS)-driven digital map of past and predicted malaria outbreak hotspots.

Researchers writing in BioMed Central's open access International Journal of Health Geographics describe the creation of the GIS and its implementation in the malaria-stricken Madhya Pradesh region.

Malaria - Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Prevention, Treatment
Malaria is caused by a parasite that enters blood through the bite of an infected mosquito. It is characterized by fever, vomiting, shivering, sweating and other symptoms.

Aruna Srivastava and her team from India's National Institute of Malaria Research worked with colleagues from the National Vector Borne Disease Control Programme and the State Health Department to use GIS to pinpoint trouble spots for timely preventive action. She said, "This is the first time that GIS has been used in a national control program for tribal malaria. The system identifies hotspots from which malaria flares up every time conditions favourable for transmission occur".

After implementation of hotspot management based on the GIS system, parasitological data showed that 96042 malaria cases in 2006 reduced to 90829 in 2007. This work continued in 2008 and the authors say results were good. According to Srivastava, "GIS can dynamically map malaria hot spots and also point out the geographic locations of hot pockets within to carry out accelerated focused malaria control. The main advantage of the GIS platform is fast data updating - as soon as data is entered, revised maps highlight the trouble spots".

About Mosquito Diseases
Mosquito-borne diseases, like malaria, filaria, dengue, etc are common in places conducive of mosquito breeding. Swamps, ponds and stagnated drainage provide optimal breeding ground for mosquitoes.

Source-Eurekalert
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