The incidence of diseases like malaria and diarrhoea has been increasing sharply in Mumbai since 2008 and if the trend continues, it may raise to the level of an epidemic. A Mumbai-based ngo, Praja Foundation, wrote that in a letter to the Maharashtra chief minister earlier this week highlighting the neglect by the municipal and state departments of public health in the city.

The ngo, headed by BG Deshmukh, former cabinet secretary, has asked the government to set up a task force for health to check the rising number of deaths due to curable diseases public health.

The data collected by them is on five diseases namely, malaria, diarrhea, hypertension, tuberculosis and diabetes, from municipal dispensaries and hospitals and state hospitals for three years, between April 2008 and March 2011.

Malaria

Between 2008 and 2010, 2,100 people died due to malaria alone in Mumbai. The malaria death toll across 24 wards in the city in 2008 was 348. This number increased to 612 in 2009, a rise of 76 percent. It rose to 1,190 in 2010, an increase of 94 percent.

The most recurrent ward in number of deaths due to malaria was in F (South) ward which covers the Parel and Sewri areas. The death toll there has gone from 37 in 2008 to 125 in 2010 – a rise of 238 percent. Ironically, this ward also houses the headquarters of municipal commissioner for health.
The deaths due to malaria in the chief minister’s ward (D ward – Malabar Hill area) have gone up by 239 percent. The death toll there has gone from 18 in 2008 to 61 in 2010.

Diarrhoea

Diarrhoea killed over 1,400 people in three years in Mumbai. In 2008, 427 cases of death were registered which rose to 447 in 2009 and then by another 34 percent to 559 in 2010. The highest incidence through the three years was noticed around Dadar.