Malaria Continues to Cause Victims Worldwide: World Malaria Day 2021 Update

In 2021, 619,000 people in the world were killed by malaria, the majority, 80 percent, being children under the age of 5. At the same time, in the same year, 247 million new cases of malaria were registered. These are the 2021 figures reported by the World Health Organization.

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by Plasmodium, a group of parasites that can enter the human body through the bite of the Anopheles mosquito. The disease is manifested by fever, chills, headaches, vomiting, in a first phase, followed by kidney failure, circulatory collapse, heart failure, coma, and, finally, death.

“In Romania, malaria was eradicated in the 60s. So, now we only have “import” cases. We are talking about people who have traveled to endemic areas where there is malaria: Asia, Africa, Central and South America. At the national level, there is a malaria surveillance methodology, which includes case definitions, ways of establishing the diagnosis, strict reporting of malaria cases, the treatment administered, but also chemoprophylaxis. And, when we talk about prophylaxis, I recommend those who go on trips to endemic countries, I am referring here especially to tourists, to contact an infectious disease doctor at least a week before departure who will recommend a treatment, depending on country of travel, either daily or weekly, with an anti-malarial drug. Its administration will start seven days before travel, will continue during the period in which they are in the endemic area and another four weeks after returning to the country“, says dr. Ovidiu Roșca, primary infectious disease physician Hospital of Infectious Diseases and Pneumophthisiology “Dr. Victor Babeș” Timisoara.

According to him, there are also individual protection measures that include the use of mosquito creams or solutions, long-sleeved clothing, but also the use of mosquito nets, treated with insecticide, which should protect the bed in the bedroom.

In Romania, however, all cases of malaria are hospitalized, where the treatment is administered which is quite “aggressive”, says Dr. Ovidiu Roșca: “By the way, in Romania, in 2021, 11 patients with malaria, people from endemic countries, were registered. At the same time, a death was recorded. The Victor Babeș Timișoara Hospital has doctors specialized in the detection and treatment of tropical diseases, but fortunately, the last case of malaria recorded in the health unit was a few years ago”.

World Malaria Day, adopted in 2007, is observed on April 25 to showcase the progress made worldwide to eradicate the disease.