Available online at www.scholarsresearchlibrary.com Scholars Research Library Archives of Applied Science Research, 2013, 5 (3):104-111 (http://scholarsresearchlibrary.com/archive.html) ISSN 0975-508X CODEN (USA) AASRC9 104 Scholars Research Library Trend of malaria incidence in the state of Karnataka, India for 2001 to 2011 Anirudh R. Acharya, Jhansi Lakshmi Magisetty, Adarsha Chandra V. R., Chaithra B. S., Taiyaba Khanum and Vijayan V. A. Vector Biology Research Lab, Department of Studies in Zoology, University of Mysore, Manasagangotri, Mysore, India _____________________________________________________________________________________________ ABSTRACT Karnataka state with the vast semi-urban areas,rich irrigated lands and good monsoon, facilitates prolific growth of mosquitoes and transmission of malaria. In 2001, Karnataka accounted for 9.47% of total malaria cases of India. However, the data from the present study revealed that, there was a significant decline in the incidenceby 89.3% for the last ten years(2001 to 2011). In 2011, the annual parasite incidence (API) was 0.4 and mortality less than 5%. Anopheles culicifacies (species A) has beenthe major malaria vector in rural and semi-urban areas and An. ste- phensi being the major malaria vector in urban areas. Here the age group prone to malaria is between 21 to 30 years and there has been growing trend towards urban malaria as people from rural areas migrate to the city. The decrease in the incidence is due to implementation of various control measures, contributed by the application of biological methods as well, such as larvivorous fish,Poecilia and Gambusia. The epidemiological situation in Kar- nataka is much better than many other states of India.But there is need of awareness among the peopleto reduce the number of cases further and bring the state toa malaria free zone in the country. Keywords: Malaria, Karnataka state, epidemiology, Anopheles. _____________________________________________________________________________________________ INTRODUCTION Mal’aria, which means bad air in Italian language, was the name given to disease which occurred seasonally with certain pronounced symptoms during 18 th century. In the past many traditional methods were followedto cure ma- laria, but even it could not prevent fall ofthe Roman Empire,until the discovery of the protozoan parasite Plasmo- dium and the transmitting vector,female Anophelinemosquito.This disease is prevalent in tropics which have poor economic conditions,the situation being worst in sub-Saharan and rural areas. Approximately, 5% of the world’s population is infected, mostly people from high-transmission zones which includeAfrican regions, which report vast number of cases (81%), followed by the South-East Asia (13%), and the Eastern Mediterranean region (5%)withover 1 million deaths each yearin the world [1]. It is difficult to procure vaccine for malaria, as the Plas- modium species have a complex multistage lifecycle. But due to steady increase in the global funding for malaria control, introducing free distribution of insecticide treated mosquito nets (ITNs), improvised long lasting insecticide treated nets, indoor residual spraying (IRS) and usage of mosquito repellents haveresulted in significant drop in both malaria cases and deathsall over the world. Malaria in India: India is a tropical country having distinct climatic zones, rich fauna and being the second populous country hasfaced many of the epidemics which severely affected the public health. Malaria being one such disease, its transmission varies with geographic areas, as the diversity and distribution of Anopheline and Plasmodium species vary. High- transmission zones are present in parts of Odisha, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Proportion of distribution of the parasites also vary with regions; Tamil Nadu predomi-