Government of Andhra Pradesh commissioned' the Institute of Health Systems to prepare a comprehensive manual to achieve better control of the Malaria situation in the state. We, the Malaria Manual Preparation Team, at IHS are very pleased to offer, through this manual, our contributions towards control of malaria in the state. Immediately after commissioning, we started collecting all available material about malaria control activities in the state. We interacted with the malaria control programme officers, and officials at Directorate of Health, dealing with malaria. We also discussed the matter among the Institute's faculty and attended the National Workshop on Communicable Disease Control conducted by the State Government in December, which was very informative.

This manual departs from traditional programme implementation manuals in the sense that this is a manual addressed to every one in the state, who have a role towards control of malaria. We have not repeated many of the administrative forms and instructions already contained in the Operational Manual for Malaria Action Programme (MAP), 1995 issued by the National Malaria Eradication Programme (NAMP). We start with insights on malaria problem which may help every one contribute to its prevention & control. In the Chapter -II an overview on malaria parasite and how it causes malaria is presented.

Details on entomological profile and mosquito vector biology, are explained in the Chapter-III. More emphasis is given on the entomological field techniques which will help build a strong surveillance system. We strongly believe that the study of entomology in colleges and universities, can play an important role for surveillance. Hence, model syllabus on applied entomology for inclusion in Bachelors and Masters courses in life sciences discipline are recommended in this chapter.

Indicators needed to assess malaria situation are presented in Chapter-IV. These key indicators help immensely in forecasting malaria epidemics. A detailed review on situation of malaria in the state of AP is given in the fifth Chapter. In the Chapter-VI, details on what individuals, families and neighbourhoods do to keep out malaria are presented. The chapter also includes personal protection measures.

Practice guidelines for diagnosis and treatment of malaria are given in Chapter-VII. These guidelines should be adopted by practitioners and healthcare delivery institutions in both public and private sector, with appropriate modifications to suit local conditions. The next chapter describes environmental, chemical and biological control measures of mosquito vector. Recommendations of expert committee are given in Chapter IX.

This manual is a result of collaborative effort of many people, who contributed generously with experiences drawn from their respective work spheres. Mr.Ratna Joseph, District Malaria Officer, Krishna District, was kind enough to spend two weeks with the Institute and helped us in getting started. We thank Dr.Gurunath Babu, Addl. Director (Malaria & Filaria), AP for providing us with official information and data on malaria incidence.

We thank Dr. SK Ghosh, Asst. Director, Malaria Research Centre, Bangalore for visiting IHS and sharing with us his rich experiences in the field of malaria prevention and control. Our thanks are also due to Dr. Alaham Ravi, Sr. Entomologist, Hyderabad for his inputs from his field experiences. The services of Mr. V.L. Kanta Rao, Chief Entomologist, Pest Control (India) Ltd, formerly State Programme officer (Malaria), AP for his valuable suggestions, is duly acknowledged. We thank Shri M. Nagarjuna lAS, for his help in providing data on malaria in the state.

We are very grateful to the Government of AP and Shri C. Arjuna Rao, Special Chief Secretary to Government of AP and Shri A.K. Tigidi, Secretary Health, Medical and Family Welfare Department. Shri Arjuna Rao has been the primary source of inspiration for our work.