Mumbai: The city’s malaria burden underscores how far India’s financial capital remains from the World Health Organisation’s 2030 malaria elimination target, with the city continuing to report unusually high infection rates even beyond the traditional peak season.Between Jan 1 and April 21, state health department data reveal that Mumbai recorded 1,773 malaria cases, far ahead of any other district in the state. Gadchiroli, the second highest in this period, reported 348 cases.The city’s malaria problem worsened year on year. In 2025, Mumbai registered 10,163 malaria cases, compared with 7,939 in the previous year, marking an increase of nearly 30%.The scale of the gap has raised concern among public health experts, especially because malaria cases are typically expected to rise during the monsoon rather than in the first four months of the year.Doctors say the persistence of cases through summer reflects a worrying shift in transmission patterns. “Summers were traditionally considered a healthy season as far as malaria was concerned, but even today we see cases of malaria and dengue,” said Dr Anita Mathew. Doctors also said that while malaria is no longer a difficult-to-treat condition, some cases could be missed in summer. “Blood tests don’t catch malaria in very early stages, so a patient may reach a doctor only after his condition worsens,” said a civic doctor.At the state level, Maharashtra is reporting around 74 to 75 malaria cases per day in 2025-26, with Mumbai contributing 30% to 40% of the total. That means roughly 28 daily cases are coming from the city alone, a concentration that highlights its growing vulnerability despite repeated awareness drives and public health campaigns.State data also show that malaria is not moving in the direction expected under an elimination roadmap.The recent state economic survey showed 12,909 malaria cases were reported in 2020-21, followed by 19,303 cases in 2021-22. Cases dipped for a couple of years thereafter, but rose to 20,640 in 2024-25.A senior doctor from the BMC public health department said that malaria is due to a combination of climate and urban factors. Intermittent rainfall, an early monsoon, and changing weather patterns have created favourable breeding conditions for mosquitoes. At the same time, large-scale infrastructure construction activity across Mumbai has led to stagnant water accumulation, providing ideal sites for malaria-spreading Anopheles mosquitoes to breed.Dr Mathew said the persistence of malaria points to a failure of control rather than a lack of scientific tools. “Although the surge in malaria is more to do with climate change, our society has progressed to the extent that vectors such as mosquitoes can be handled. Malaria isn’t an infectious disease like tuberculosis, yet we are not able to control malaria,” she said.
