An NGO, Praja Foundation had conducted a survey on over 15,000 citizens in Mumbai to ascertain the health conditions of the households. There were more than 3.9 lakh people who had malaria in 2011-2012 which is almost 15% of the surveyed people after considereing the private healthcare services too. However, the official figure is a meager 29,828 clearly understating the gravity of the situation of mararia. 64 people were also reported to die from the malaria cases in 2011.

A consultant doctor at Jaslk and Breach Candy Hospitals, Dr Hemant Thacker said that there has been a great rise in the Dengue fever compared to the malarial fever as the former is caused by a virus as opposed to malaria which is caused by a parasite called plasmodium. This enables dengue to be easily transmitted to other people significantly rising the toll. The weather changes add to the usual 5-15 day lifespan of the virus. However he has said that the BMC has worked efficiently and controlled the cases of malaria in the city.

Praja foundation had raised numerous red flags in their survey. It had revealed that over 30% of the people spend at least 11% of their annual income on hospitals and medicines. 80% in Mumbai don't have any medical insurance. 75% of them opt for private sources and hence there is a great need to file these statistics and expand the data, the foundation said.

Meanwhile BMC health officer had parried the blame by saying that the diseases like malaria and diarrhoea are categorized as non notifiable diseases and hence the BMC has no notifications from any other organization. It has also said that they have not received the survey report from Praja Foundation and hence had denied to comment on the issue.

(AW- Anil)