The World Health Organization (WHO) 2021 malaria report, published this Monday (06), points to Brazil, Colombia and Venezuela as responsible for 77% of malaria cases in the Americas in 2020.
According to the document, 18 countries on the continent, considered endemic for the disease, were responsible for approximately 0.3% of all cases in the world.
Symptoms of the disease are chills, fever and sweating during the first few weeks after infection. The disease can lead to death if not properly treated.
Data from the Ministry of Health show that, in Brazil, malaria transmission is predominant in the Amazon region, which covers 99% of cases in the country. The country registered 140,974 cases last year, a reduction of 10.5% compared to 2019, and 27.5% compared to 2018.
Last year, considering regions outside the Amazon, more than 90% of notified cases were imported from endemic areas or other endemic countries, such as those on the African continent.
Also last year, cases were more recurrent in males (60.7%), brown (55.9%), education up to incomplete elementary school (43.3%) and in the age group of 21 to 30 years and 31 to 40 years (18.7% and 14.8%).
Between 2000 and 2020, according to WHO, the American continent significantly reduced cases of malaria. The total number of cases of the disease dropped about 58%, from 1.5 million, to about 650,000 cases.
Another number that registered a decrease was the mortality in the population in an area at risk of transmission, from 0.8 to 0.3 for every 100,000 inhabitants.
Also according to the organization, in recent years, the growth of cases in the region has been strongly impacted by the malaria epidemic in Venezuela.
In 2000, the country registered 35,500 cases of the disease, in 2019, Venezuela had more than 467,000 cases of infection by the protozoan. However, by 2020, cases in Venezuela had dropped more than 50% to 232,000 infections with the disease.
According to the WHO, countries in Africa accumulated, in 2020, 95% of all cases in the world, with 228 million infected, and 96% of deaths, with 602 thousand deaths from the disease.
According to the report, 80% of deaths on the continent were in children under the age of five. The growth in the number of cases and deaths in the world, for the WHO, is directly linked to the new Coronavirus pandemic.
The Organization further estimates that two-thirds of deaths from the disease worldwide were due to interruptions in prevention, diagnosis and treatment during the pandemic.
“Malaria, which is transmitted by a mosquito, is a disease that does not have a vaccine, so rapid diagnosis and treatment are still the main ways to control the disease. The fear caused by the Covid-19 pandemic has made it difficult to treat the disease in the last two years around the world, which has caused this greater fear”, explained Ricardo Luiz Machado, professor in Human Parasitology at the Fluminense Federal University (UFF).
“We can go further and say that there have been cases of co-infection between Covid and malaria, which also leads to excessive pro-inflammatory responses and can result in more severe manifestations and a poor prognosis”, he concluded.
Reference: CNN Brasil
