An assessment of malarial prone area and incidence in Mangalore city, Karnataka: A geographical study Angadi D. P. Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Mangalore University College, Mangalore-575001 Online published on 20 June, 2017. Abstract The human race has suffered from malaria since earliest times. Malarial fevers associated with swamps and marshes from which mosquitoes transmit the infection. Since early Greek times, attempts have been made to control malaria by draining swamps and stagnant marshes, but a specific treatment for the disease was not available in Europe until the 1630s, when bark of the cinchona tree was introduced into Spain from Peru as a medicine. Malaria is caused by parasites called Plasmodia and is spread by female anopheles mosquitoes. The diseases manifest within 10 days of the bite of an infected mosquito with symptoms of fever, headache, body ache, chills, rigors, vomiting, jaundice etc. Malaria is a major public health problem in India and one which contributes signicantly to the overall malaria burden in Southeast Asia. An annual incidence is estimated at around 75 million cases in 1953 and about 7–8 lakhs deaths annually, particularly in the states like Punjab and Bengal. The economic loss was estimated to be at Rs. 10, 000 million per year in 1935. At the time of independence in 1947 with the population of 330 million, 75 million people were estimated to be infected with malaria every year, and the direct mortality due to the disease was estimated at 0.8 million per annum. In this paper efforts have been made to study an assessment of malarial prone area and incidence in Mangalore City, Karnataka State, India. Top |