India is currently under a dual burden of disease. There has been an upsurge in the prevalence of non-communicable diseases without a complete eradication of communicable ones. Infectious diseases are still persisting as major health problems in spite of having national programmes for the control of most of these diseases for more than half a century now. Malaria is one such preventable and curable disease forming one of the major public health concerns in India. India accounts for approximately two thirds of the confirmed cases reported in the south-east Asia region. In 2008, 96 million slides were examined, from which 1.5 million cases were confirmed.

Keeping in context the gravity of situation, the GFATM Round 9 Intensified Malaria Control Project–II (IMCP-II) project envisages a well crafted public private partnership model by involving NGOs of national repute and having a local presence as well in achieving the targets set under Millennium Development Goals or atleast reduction in malaria related morbidity and mortality to 30% by 2015 as compared to 2008. The IMCP-II leverages the Govt. of India’s efforts to improve malaria prevention and treatment for about 42.5 million people in 86 high endemic districts in the North East states of the country.

VHAI working with the primary goal of ‘making health a reality for people of India’ is having one of the largest networks of voluntary organizations in the country. The organization has a vast presence in the difficult unserved and underserved parts of the country which includes the North Eastern states as well. VHAI is one of the partner organizations in IMCP-II and is currently operational in more than 1074 villages of 13 high malaria endemic districts of 7 states in Northeast India. These states are Assam, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland. The districts with VHAI form hard core endemic pockets inhabited predominantly by poor rural populations including the Scheduled Tribes, Scheduled Castes, and other marginalized communities, who have relatively limited access to quality health care, communication and other basic facilities.

VHAI with an expertise in developing well researched IEC material has been held responsible for an updation of govt. manuals for the health workers along with the task of developing and using other IEC tools for an effective behaviour change communication at the grassroots. Other malaria prevention and control related activities undertaken by VHAI in this large number of villages are distributing long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) / insecticide treated nets (ITN). The trained health workers also ensure that the detected fever cases get appropriate diagnosis (malaria rapid diagnostic test (RDT)) and treatment (artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs)) according to programme guidelines.

Achievements (updated on 19 June 2012)

Under a diligent guidance from the Central unit in Delhi, our Regional units in these North Eastern states have been able to achieve commendable results in a span of two years of the project. To mention a few of them, for the prevention of malaria, against the target of 27075, more than 55384 LLINs have been distributed; more than 16,000 community members have been educated on the prevention and treatment of malaria through miking and IPC sessions. As part of the IMCP II mandate under GFATM R 9, VHAI is conducting training of untrained ASHAs in malaria in the seven states of northeast India. So far we have been able to train 4574 ASHAs and 863 CHVs in Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Tripura and Manipur. VHAI has initiated the ASHA training in Meghalaya as well.

These states in the Northeast of the country have a well known distinction of political unrest, difficult terrain, sometimes making even the available health services out of reach. This makes our task more challenging but not daunting enough to lower our spirits in anyways. We have created some awareness and are sure of improving the treatment ratio in these malaria endemic zones with an involvement of local community. To make the country free from this much preventable disease it is important that the efforts continue beyond this project in alliance with the local administration and community.