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A ccording
to the World Malaria Report, malaria is prevalent in 108 countries
of the tropical and semitropical world, with 35 countries in central
Africa bearing the highest burden of cases and deaths. Of the 35
countries that account globally for ~98% of malaria deaths, 30 are
located in sub-Saharan Africa, accounting for 98.5% of the deaths in
Africa, with four countries alone accounting for ~50% of deaths on
the continent (Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Uganda and
Ethiopia). In sub-Saharan Africa, approximately 365 million cases
occurred in 2002 and 963 thousand deaths in 2000, equating to 71% of
worldwide cases and 85.7% of worldwide deaths. Almost 1 out of 5
deaths of children under 5 in Africa is due to malaria. With
increased efforts in controlling malaria in Africa in the recent
years, it is reported that a total of 11 countries and one area in
the African Region showed a reduction of more than 50% in either
confirmed malaria cases or malaria admissions and deaths (Algeria,
Botswana, Cape Verde, Eritrea, Madagascar, Namibia, Rwanda, Sao Tome
and Principe, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, and Zanzibar, United
Republic of Tanzania), whereas there was evidence of an increase in
malaria cases in 3 countries in 2009 (Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe,
and Zambia).[1-4] However, these claims of improved malaria
situation in Africa, as presented by the WHO, have been
challenged.[5-6]
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Categorization
according to malaria burden in Africa |
Malaria cases and
deaths in Africa |
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High Burden African Countries
Central Africa: Cameroon, Central African Republic
(CAR), Chad, Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC),
Equatorial Guinea, Gabon
East Africa: Burundi, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia,
Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda
Southern Africa: Angola, Madagascar, Malawi, Mozambique,
Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe
West Africa: Benin, Burkina Faso, Côte d'Ivoire, Gambia,
Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Liberia, Mali, Mauritania,
Nigeria, Niger, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Togo
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Source:
Global Malaria
Action Plan. Available at
http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/gmap and
http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/gmap/3-2.html |
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Of
the five Plasmodia
species that infect human beings (P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. malariae, P. ovale
and P. knowlesi), P. falciparum and
P. vivax cause the significant majority of malaria infections.
P. falciparum, which causes most of the severe cases and deaths, is
generally found in tropical regions, such as sub-Saharan Africa and
Southeast Asia, as well as in the Western Pacific and in countries
sharing the Amazon rainforest. P. vivax is common in most
of Asia (especially Southeast Asia) and the Eastern Mediterranean,
and in most endemic countries of the Americas. P. malariae and
P. ovale contribute to only a small number of malaria
infections: P. ovale is found in Africa and sporadically in Southeast Asia and the
Western Pacific, whereas P. malariae has a similar geographical distribution
to P. falciparum but its incidence is patchy and is probably
underestimated. P. knowlesi is a primate malaria species that
is being increasingly reported from remote areas of Southeast Asia
from countries such as Malaysia, Thailand, Viet Nam,
Myanmar and Phillippines,.
Further Reading:
-
World Malaria
Report 2010. Available at
http://whqlibdoc.who.int/publications/2010/9789241564106_eng.pdf
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Malaria Atlas
Project. Available at
http://www.map.ox.ac.uk/
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Global Malaria
Action Plan. Available at
http://www.rollbackmalaria.org/gmap
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Rowe AK et al. The
burden of malaria mortality among African children in the year 2000.
International Journal of Epidemiology. 2006;35:691-704.
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Roberts DR, Tren R.
International advocacy against DDT and other public health
insecticides for malaria control. Research and Reports in
Tropical Medicine January 2011;2011(2):23-30. DOI
10.2147/RRTM.S16419. Available at
http://www.dovepress.com/getfile.php?fileID=8597
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Rowe AK et al. Caution
is required when using health facility-based data to evaluate the
health impact of malaria control efforts in Africa. Malaria
Journal 2009;8:209 doi:10.1186/1475-2875-8-209. Available at
http://www.malariajournal.com/content/pdf/1475-2875-8-209.pdf
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Cyrus Daneshvar,
Timothy M. E. Davis, Janet Cox-Singh, Mohammad Zakri Rafa’ee, Siti
Khatijah Zakaria, Paul C. S. Divis, Balbir Singh. Clinical and
Laboratory Features of Human Plasmodium knowlesi Infection.
Clinical Infectious Diseases 2009;49:852–860
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Chaturong Putaporntip,
Thongchai Hongsrimuang, Sunee Seethamchai et al. Differential
Prevalence of Plasmodium Infections and Cryptic Plasmodium
knowlesi Malaria in Humans in Thailand. The Journal of
Infectious Diseases 2009;199:1143–1150
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Balbir Singh, Lee Kim
Sung, Anand Radhakrishnan et al. A large focus of naturally acquired
Plasmodium knowlesi infections in human beings. The Lancet
2004;363(9414):1017-1024
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Janet Cox-Singh,
Balbir Singh. Knowlesi malaria: newly emergent and of public health
importance? Trends in Parasitology. 2008;24(9):406-410
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Peter Van den Eede,
Hong Nguyen Van, Chantal Van Overmeir et al. Human Plasmodium
knowlesi infections in young children in central Vietnam.
Malaria Journal 2009;8:249. Full Text at
http://www.malariajournal.com/content/8/1/249
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