Don’t ignore malaria

DURING the Covid-19 pandemic, the malaria community should remain committed to supporting the prevention of infection, illness and death through preventive and case management services, while maintaining a safe environment for patients, clients and staff.
Deaths due to malaria and its comorbidities (anaemia, under nutrition, etc.) should continue to be prevented.
Malaria is found in more than 100 countries, mainly in tropical areas of the world including PNG.
PNG reports one million malaria cases annually, with 800 people dying from the disease every year.
Malaria cases dropped over a 10-year period before this, however, in recent years there has been a dramatic resurgence of the disease.
Yesterday, we published an article on the outbreak of malaria in the upper Purari in Baimuru, Gulf.
Out of the 95 patients tested, 72 came back positive. A community health worker at Haia Healthcentre confirmed five deaths from the outbreak so far.
Malaria remains one of the worst public health problems in PNG.
It is a serious and sometimes fatal disease caused by a parasite that infects a type of mosquito which feeds on humans.
Once, an infected mosquito bites a human, the parasites multiply in the host’s liver before infecting and destroying their red blood cells.
For millions of people around the world it can also transmit deadly and debilitating illnesses such as malaria, zika, lymphatic filariasis, West Nile virus, chikungunya, yellow fever and dengue.
Research by PNG’s Institute of Medical Research shows a nine-fold increase in the number of cases of malaria in PNG between 2014 and 2017.
The rising number of cases in PNG contributed to a spike in the number of recorded malaria cases worldwide which increased by two million from 2016 to 2017.
The 2018 World Malaria Report, detailed 219 million cases of malaria in 2017, up from 217 million cases the year before.
Population Services International (PSI) reports a little over 60 per cent of the population live in malaria risk areas with the disease particularly damaging to pregnant women and their unborn children.
The Covid-19 pandemic is testing the resilience of robust health systems around the world including PNG.
Ensuring access to core malaria prevention measures is an important strategy for reducing the strain on health systems.
When health systems are overwhelmed, both direct mortality from an outbreak and indirect mortality from vaccine-preventable and treatable conditions increase dramatically.
Countries will need to make difficult decisions to balance the demands of responding directly to Covid-19, while simultaneously engaging in strategic planning and coordinated action to maintain essential health service delivery, mitigating the risk of system collapse.
The Government is conscious of the fact and wants to get PNG free of malaria.
Amid its effort in handling the coronavirus effects in the country, it should come up with a cost in terms of having a sustainable control and surveillance system.
The Government of PNG will not achieve this on its own and hence needs its partners to make the fight against malaria a development priority is timely.
The message to our leaders is to invest in primary health care.
Primary health care is about caring for people and helping them improve their health, rather than treating a single disease or condition.