Making Gujarat malaria-free: Health Minister recommends using drone to get rid of mosquitoes

New Delhi: In an attempt to make Gujarat malaria-free, state Health Minister Shankar Chaudhary on Wednesday recommended using drones in fight against mosquito-borne diseases.

The health minister, while speaking at the launch of a campaign to make Gujarat malaria-free by the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC), said that drones should be deployed to check for mosquito breeding sites in homes.

The AMC on Wednesday launched its drive under the state government's campaign to make Gujarat malaria-free by 2022.

Mosquito breeding sites are often found in backyards and terraces of households, where scrap is usually kept.

Under the campaign, as many as 1,650 health workers will visit 15.40 lakh houses and other places to check for mosquito breeding sites over the next 16 days.

In July 2016, the Gujarat government had declared malaria and dengue as notifiable diseases - a notifiable disease is any disease that is required by law to be reported to government authorities.

Malaria is a public health problem in several parts of India, about 95% of the country's population living in malaria endemic areas.

According to WHO, malaria continues to kill 4,00,000 people annually although mortality rates fell by 29% between 2010 and 2015.

Meanwhile, escalating its efforts in fight against mosquito-borne diseases across the country, the government has asserted that malaria will be eliminated from at least 15 Indian states by 2020.