Malaria tests India's public health system

An unprecedented upsurge in malaria in Rajasthan, a state in western India, within weeks of India's episode of plague has raised doubts about the efficacy of the country's public health system. Officials of the national malaria eradication programme had by last week confirmed 95 165 positive cases of malaria and 255 deaths in Rajasthan in the previous six weeks. Non-government health groups that have sent mobile medical teams to the affected villages claim that the death toll exceeds 1000.

Although malaria is endemic in India, the current outbreak is causing concern because of …