TOI gathered details from at least two affidavits filed by the AMC in the High Court after 2006. There is already a dramatic jump in dengue and chikungunya cases, but an equally dramatic decline could be seen. Malaria and cases of falciparum in the city.
Affidavit claims how cases of malaria, transmitted by the female Anopheles mosquito, has seen a dramatic decline since 2012 – from 15,904 cases in 2020 to 618. On the other hand, Chikungunya cases have increased from 82 in 2006 to 923 in 2020. Similar is the case with dengue, which showed an increase. From 146 cases in 2006 to 1,962 till October this year. Dengue and Chikungunya are both spread by the Aedes aegypti mosquito.
“We have seen a steady decline in malaria cases since 2010, when strategies to combat Anopheles mosquitoes and Plasmodium parasites changed. In dengue and chikungunya we are dealing with the virus which is transmitted through Aedes aegypti mosquitoes,” says a senior health official of the AMC.
A former AMC official and an entomologist said that the gestation period of malarial Plasmodium parasite is 10 to 12 days while the gestation period of dengue and chikungunya cases is 3 to 7 days which is very short time.
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