Just this year the death rate from Malaria rose to way above 2015, bringing to light how dangerous malaria still is even after all these years and numerous research around it.
Angola recorded 2,915 deaths from malaria in the first quarter of this year, compared with 8,000 for the whole of 2015 and 5,500 the previous year, the WHO told Reuters on Monday.
"This new malaria outbreak has devastated the entire country, even in provinces that have low endemic prevalence we are seeing the spread and surge in cases," the WHO's Angola representative Hernando Agudelo Ospina said.
this is the background of a downward spiral in the economy and cuts on such things as refuse collection which has created breeding grounds for mosquites. {extracted from http://www.medicaldaily.com/malaria-deaths-rising-angola-383456
-African Region accounted for most global cases of malaria (88%), followed by the South-East Asia Region (10%) and the Eastern Mediterranean Region (2%).
-2015, an estimated 438 000 malaria deaths (range 236 000–635 000) worldwide.
-Most of deaths occurred in the African Region (90%), followed by the South-East Asia Region (7%) and the Eastern Mediterranean Region (2%).
Between 2000 and 2015, malaria incidence rates (new malaria cases) fell by 37% globally, and by 42% in Africa. During this same period, malaria mortality rates fell by 60% globally and by 66% in the African Region.
Other regions have achieved impressive reductions in their malaria burden. Since 2000, the malaria mortality rate declined by 72% in the Region of the Americas, by 65% in the Western Pacific Region, by 64% in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, and by 49% in the South-East Asia Region. For the first time, the European Region reported zero indigenous cases of malaria in 2015.
Children under five are particularly susceptible to malaria illness, infection and death. In 2015, malaria killed an estimated 306 000 under-fives globally, including 292 000 children in the African Region. Between 2000 and 2015, the mortality rate among children under five fell by 65% worldwide and by 71% in Africa.
In 2015, the global burden of malaria remained heavily concentrated in 15 countries, mainly in Africa. Together, these countries account for an estimated 80% of global malaria cases and 78% of deaths.
WHO recommends diagnostic testing for all people with suspected malaria before treatment is administered. Rapid diagnostic testing (RDTs), introduced widely over the past decade, has made it easier to swiftly distinguish between malarial and non-malarial fevers, enabling timely and appropriate treatment.
Malaria infection during pregnancy carries substantial risks for the mother, her fetus and the newborn child. In Africa, the proportion of women who receive intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) for malaria has been increasing over time, but levels remain below national targets. In 2014, an estimated 15 million of the 28 million pregnant women at risk of malaria did not receive a single dose of IPTp.
Mosquito resistance to insecticides is another growing concern. Since 2010, 60 of the 78 countries that monitor insecticide resistance have reported mosquito resistance to at least one insecticide used in nets and indoor spraying
EXTRACTED FROM http://www.who.int/malaria/media/world-malaria-report-2015/en/
Another 8 countries each tallied fewer than 100 indigenous malaria cases in 2014. And a further 12 countries reported between 100 and 1000 indigenous malaria cases in 2014.
Since the year 2000, malaria mortality rates have declined by 60% globally. In the WHO African Region, malaria mortality rates fell by 66% among all age groups and by 71% among children under 5 years.
The advances came through the use of core malaria control tools that have been widely deployed over the last decade: insecticide-treated bed-nets, indoor residual spraying, rapid diagnostic testing and artemisinin-based combination therapies.
EXTRACTED FROM .http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/world-malaria-day/en/
Experts say malaria is a major health problem in Zimbabwe with 50% of the population at risk, although its epidemiology varies in the different regions of the country, ranging from year-round transmission in the lowland areas to epidemic-prone areas in the highlands.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are more than 400,000 malaria cases among all age groups each year in Zimbabwe.
Sithole said there is an increase of mortality deaths in rural areas due to inaccessibility to hospitals.
“The provision of medication and how to curb this disease especially in rural areas is questionable like people in the rural areas cannot get the kind of treatment like those in the city. People in the rural areas don’t have access (health centers). One hospital can be a hundred of kilometers away. It comes back to the infrastructure of the health system; you don’t have enough hospitals, don’t have enough medical personal and don’t have enough medication so you won’t treat enough people … So that is why people die in the rural areas …”
Sithole noted that Zimbabwean youth are not getting adequate information about malaria. “It’s just ignorance. People are not taking malaria seriously, people think it’s a mild disease, which it is a mild because it’s a hundred percent preventable and hundred percent treatable.”
He suggested various ways of preventing malaria. “ … Getting rid of mosquito breeding areas. Use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and indoor residual spraying, use of mosquito coils and repellents, covering yourself. (The) Drug prophylaxis can also be used, especially for people travelling to endemic areas, pregnant women and children.
“Since malaria is preventable and curable, the most effective approach to ending this disease is education. If people know about it and take measures to combat it, it will be very easy to get rid of this killer disease. Raising awareness in communities, schools and churches is a very good start.”
AFRICA OUTLOOK
Within the next four years, six nations in African regions where malaria is most prominent could be free of the disease, the World Health Organization, said in a report published Monday to mark World Malaria Day.
The six countries in Africa that could be rid of malaria by 2020 are Algeria, Botswana, Cape Verde, Comoros, South Africa and Swaziland.
EXTRACTED FROM
By Phyllis Mbanje
Angola recorded 2,915 deaths from malaria in the first quarter of this year, compared with 8,000 for the whole of 2015 and 5,500 the previous year, the WHO told Reuters on Monday.
"This new malaria outbreak has devastated the entire country, even in provinces that have low endemic prevalence we are seeing the spread and surge in cases," the WHO's Angola representative Hernando Agudelo Ospina said.
this is the background of a downward spiral in the economy and cuts on such things as refuse collection which has created breeding grounds for mosquites. {extracted from http://www.medicaldaily.com/malaria-deaths-rising-angola-383456
Fact Sheet: World Malaria Report 2015
Global disease burden in 2015
Latest estimates from WHO-there were 214 million new cases of malaria worldwide in 2015 (range 149–303 million).-African Region accounted for most global cases of malaria (88%), followed by the South-East Asia Region (10%) and the Eastern Mediterranean Region (2%).
-2015, an estimated 438 000 malaria deaths (range 236 000–635 000) worldwide.
-Most of deaths occurred in the African Region (90%), followed by the South-East Asia Region (7%) and the Eastern Mediterranean Region (2%).
Between 2000 and 2015, malaria incidence rates (new malaria cases) fell by 37% globally, and by 42% in Africa. During this same period, malaria mortality rates fell by 60% globally and by 66% in the African Region.
Other regions have achieved impressive reductions in their malaria burden. Since 2000, the malaria mortality rate declined by 72% in the Region of the Americas, by 65% in the Western Pacific Region, by 64% in the Eastern Mediterranean Region, and by 49% in the South-East Asia Region. For the first time, the European Region reported zero indigenous cases of malaria in 2015.
Children under five are particularly susceptible to malaria illness, infection and death. In 2015, malaria killed an estimated 306 000 under-fives globally, including 292 000 children in the African Region. Between 2000 and 2015, the mortality rate among children under five fell by 65% worldwide and by 71% in Africa.
Country-level trends
In 2014, 16 countries reported zero indigenous cases of the disease: Argentina, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Costa Rica, Iraq, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Morocco, Oman, Paraguay, Sri Lanka, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, United Arab Emirates and Uzbekistan.In 2015, the global burden of malaria remained heavily concentrated in 15 countries, mainly in Africa. Together, these countries account for an estimated 80% of global malaria cases and 78% of deaths.
Trends in the scale-up of malaria interventions
Vector control is the main way to prevent and reduce malaria transmission. Two forms of vector control are effective in a wide range of circumstances: insecticide-treated mosquito nets (ITNs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS).WHO recommends diagnostic testing for all people with suspected malaria before treatment is administered. Rapid diagnostic testing (RDTs), introduced widely over the past decade, has made it easier to swiftly distinguish between malarial and non-malarial fevers, enabling timely and appropriate treatment.
Malaria infection during pregnancy carries substantial risks for the mother, her fetus and the newborn child. In Africa, the proportion of women who receive intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy (IPTp) for malaria has been increasing over time, but levels remain below national targets. In 2014, an estimated 15 million of the 28 million pregnant women at risk of malaria did not receive a single dose of IPTp.
Insecticide and drug resistance
To date, parasite resistance to artemisinin – the core compound of the best available antimalarial medicines – has been detected in 5 countries of the Greater Mekong subregion.Mosquito resistance to insecticides is another growing concern. Since 2010, 60 of the 78 countries that monitor insecticide resistance have reported mosquito resistance to at least one insecticide used in nets and indoor spraying
EXTRACTED FROM http://www.who.int/malaria/media/world-malaria-report-2015/en/
On World Malaria Day, a push to eliminate malaria
In 2015, all countries in the WHO European Region reported, for the first time, zero indigenous cases of malaria, down from 90 000 cases in 1995. Outside this region, 8 countries reported zero cases of the disease in 2014: Argentina, Costa Rica, Iraq, Morocco, Oman, Paraguay, Sri Lanka and United Arab Emirates.Another 8 countries each tallied fewer than 100 indigenous malaria cases in 2014. And a further 12 countries reported between 100 and 1000 indigenous malaria cases in 2014.
Since the year 2000, malaria mortality rates have declined by 60% globally. In the WHO African Region, malaria mortality rates fell by 66% among all age groups and by 71% among children under 5 years.
The advances came through the use of core malaria control tools that have been widely deployed over the last decade: insecticide-treated bed-nets, indoor residual spraying, rapid diagnostic testing and artemisinin-based combination therapies.
EXTRACTED FROM .http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2016/world-malaria-day/en/
Zimbabwe Malaria Epidemiology
Experts say malaria is a major health problem in Zimbabwe with 50% of the population at risk, although its epidemiology varies in the different regions of the country, ranging from year-round transmission in the lowland areas to epidemic-prone areas in the highlands.
The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that there are more than 400,000 malaria cases among all age groups each year in Zimbabwe.
Sithole said there is an increase of mortality deaths in rural areas due to inaccessibility to hospitals.
“The provision of medication and how to curb this disease especially in rural areas is questionable like people in the rural areas cannot get the kind of treatment like those in the city. People in the rural areas don’t have access (health centers). One hospital can be a hundred of kilometers away. It comes back to the infrastructure of the health system; you don’t have enough hospitals, don’t have enough medical personal and don’t have enough medication so you won’t treat enough people … So that is why people die in the rural areas …”
Sithole noted that Zimbabwean youth are not getting adequate information about malaria. “It’s just ignorance. People are not taking malaria seriously, people think it’s a mild disease, which it is a mild because it’s a hundred percent preventable and hundred percent treatable.”
He suggested various ways of preventing malaria. “ … Getting rid of mosquito breeding areas. Use of insecticide-treated mosquito nets and indoor residual spraying, use of mosquito coils and repellents, covering yourself. (The) Drug prophylaxis can also be used, especially for people travelling to endemic areas, pregnant women and children.
“Since malaria is preventable and curable, the most effective approach to ending this disease is education. If people know about it and take measures to combat it, it will be very easy to get rid of this killer disease. Raising awareness in communities, schools and churches is a very good start.”
AFRICA OUTLOOK
Within the next four years, six nations in African regions where malaria is most prominent could be free of the disease, the World Health Organization, said in a report published Monday to mark World Malaria Day.
The six countries in Africa that could be rid of malaria by 2020 are Algeria, Botswana, Cape Verde, Comoros, South Africa and Swaziland.
EXTRACTED FROM
Zim battles malaria and pregnancy
Thirty-nine-year-old Shuvai from
Chikwaka village woke up feeling nauseous and feverish, but she dismissed it as
the niggles that most pregnant women experience.
By Phyllis Mbanje
Malaria remains one of the major
causes of death among pregnant women in Zimbabwe and diagnosis in these women
is still a challenge.
Pregnancy has been known to reduce
the women’s immunity, making them more at risk of developing malaria than the
general population.
Most pregnant women with malaria
might not exhibit any symptoms of the disease. Their condition might go
unnoticed and may lead to complications which can be fatal.
The likelihood of a miscarriage,
premature delivery, still birth or intrauterine growth retardation, whereby the
baby fails to grow as expected is most common in pregnant women with malaria.
The disease can also cause a
pregnant woman to develop anaemia, which is a condition in which the red cells
in the blood are insufficient.
Zimbabwe was still battling to
contain the malaria burden with 78 deaths recorded so far this year.
Although the figures are slightly
lower than those for last year, more efforts were still required to curb the
third most common illness in the country.
The programme manager of the malaria
control unit in the Health ministry, Joseph Mberikunashe when contacted for
comment recently said the malaria season was at its peak and hence the many
cases.
“From mid-February right through to
April cases of malaria increase because it is within the peak period,” he said.
He, however, said even though any death was regrettable, the figures were showing a decline in comparison with the previous year.
He, however, said even though any death was regrettable, the figures were showing a decline in comparison with the previous year.
This sad event comes against a
background where maternal death in Zimbabwe was still unacceptably high at 525
deaths per 100 000 live births.
According to the latest health
ministry report about 70 women have died while giving birth since the beginning
of the year.
The incidences could also be a
result of the prolonged rain season, which is very conducive to malaria
outbreaks. Stagnant water becomes breeding grounds for malaria.
A Zimbabwe National Statistics
Agency (Zimstat) report revealed that over 50% of the country’s population is
at risk of contracting malaria despite the introduction of several measures to
combat the disease.
The report indicates that 53,7% of
households had at least one mosquito net, 42% had an insecticide-treated
mosquito nets and 40,4% had access to a long-lasting insecticidal treated net.
Meanwhile, leading anti-malaria
brand Mortein has launched a campaign dubbed; MomsAgainstMalaria this month to
educate Zimbabwean women, and in particular new mothers and their children on
malaria prevention.
EXTRACTED FROM https://www.newsday.co.zw/2016/04/28/zim-battles-malaria-burden/
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