Since the discovery of malaria in Purba Khola Rural Municipality-3, Ringnerah, Palpa in 2024, no local patients have been found. But the government's goal has been challenged. The challenge has been added after it was confirmed that the malaria positive test in a 15-year-old boy studying in grade 8 was not imported but was caused by a mosquito bite at the local level. According to the health office, it was after seven years that malaria was found positive at the local level through a mosquito bite.

Malaria patients were imported from third countries including India in the past. According to Madhusudhan Bhattarai, a lab technician officer at the health office, it was after many years that it was seen at the local level. But this has added a challenge to the government's goal.

He said that the infected boy had a fever and tested positive for malaria when he did an RDT at the local health post. He was re-tested after sending an SMS to 32040, including the health office. According to Lab Technician Officer Bhattarai, after the re-testing through microscopy confirmed the case, case-based surveillance had to be carried out.

Acting Chief of the Health Office Tuk Prasad Pokharel said that the testing rate has been increased in the district in the last two years. But no local malaria has been found. He said that the government has postponed the date to 2026 after the target of reducing local malaria to zero by 2025 was not met. In the rapid test (RDT) conducted using the kit, 4,276 people were tested in the financial year 2080/81, and 4 people were infected.

Similarly, when the scope of testing was increased to 5,175 in the financial year 2081/82, 11 people were confirmed to have malaria, he said. The health office has stated that 3,184 people have been tested till mid-Chait of the current fiscal year 2082/83. Acting Chief Pokharel said that two people were found infected in the current fiscal year. Of the 20 infected patients found in the past three years, 20 are imported patients. In Palpa, the rate of local malaria, which is transmitted from one person to another through mosquito bites within its own geography, has been zero for the last two years.

Senior Public Health Officer Bishwanath Neupane said that the government's target has become a challenge due to imported cases. He said that malaria is being confirmed in people who go to work in various places in India. 'Every year, we search for it, health check-ups are done,' he said, 'No patient has died from malaria in recent years.'

Malaria is transmitted to humans through the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito. Acting Chief Pokharel said that the main symptoms are fever, headache, nausea and sweating after fever subsides. If not treated on time, it can cause serious damage to the liver, lungs and brain. Lab technician Bhattarai suggests that blood tests should be done as soon as fever occurs.