August 27, 2008. The number of people who have died from malaria--a rare occurrence in vivax-endemic India--has climbed to 299 in recent days. Over 14,000 cases of malaria have been recorded since the onset of the monsoons in June, when falciparum rears its ugly head.

Sixty percent of the deaths are thanks to infection by P. falciparum. Bad enough that most Indians lacks acquired and other immunities to falciparum: drug-resistant strains of the parasite are on the rise to boot. An analysis by pharmacologists at KEM hospital in Mumbai reveals that 5 percent of the falciparum cases are chloroquine-resistant, apparently one of the highest proportions of drug-resistant strains ever recorded. “Increasingly, the accepted line of treatment for malaria is failing," KEM's Neelima Kshirsagar said.

The victims include a 25-year-old man, who died in hospital and a 63-year-old woman who perished within 24 hours of admission. Public hospitals are full of malaria patients, with over 3,600 malaria cases admitted so far. "The numbers are huge," epidemiologist Neera Kewalramani said, "but they are not the highest." Kewalramani blames the construction boom across the country, which has created innumerable larval habitats for malarial mosquitoes. Construction workers have been particularly hard hit.

All one hears these days is about the high-tech boom in India. How ironic that malaria--one of the world's oldest scourges--has become part of the price of Indian modernity.

For more see:
Indo-Asian News Service, "299 malaria deaths, 19 dengue deaths this year in India," FreshNews.in, September 3, 2008
Sumitra deb Roy, "Malaria becoming harder to treat," Daily News and Analysis (India), August 24, 2008
Sumitra deb Roy, "2 more malaria deaths in 24 hrs," Daily News and Analysis (India), August 26, 2008