Goa looks forward to achieving the elimination stage of malaria after fighting against the infection for two decades. However, health services are facing challenges such as non-reporting for malaria screening by migrant labourers′ families, late reporting by workers themselves, and difficulty in detecting asymptomatic carriers arriving from endemic areas of the country.

The health officer in charge of Goa′s national vector-borne disease control programme (NVBDCP) said the goal could be met more easily if the general public collaborated with health officials and advised the families of migrants to get tested for malaria as soon as they arrived in the state.

Zero indigenous transmissions, zero annual parasite incidences (API) and zero death due to malaria are the three criteria, which Goa needs to meet before being declared malaria-free. To reach the goal, by following Indian government guidelines, the focus has been shifted to high-risk locations with a high number of migrant labourers.

There are 17 health centres in Goa, with 10 in North Goa and 15 in South Goa. Since 2018, no indigenous transmissions have been reported at either district′s health centres, and no deaths had been reported in Goa. Still, 9 health centres need to fulfill the goal of zero indigenous cases, until 2022-23. Except for Margao and Cortalim, the annual parasite incidence (API) has been zero in most centres. (ETHealthworld, May 04, 2022)