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Paraguay has eliminated malaria and, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), is the first country in America to have reached it in nearly fifty years.
disease. The number of malaria cases increased from 211 million to 216 million between 2015 and 2016.
Nine countries in the Americas reported an increase of at least 20% of malaria cases during this period, an increase of more important, "said Luis Alberto Moreno, president of the Inter-American Development Bank, which funds major efforts to fight malaria in the Americas
. If we do not accelerate down – if we do not focus on the problem – malaria will come back.
According to the WHO, malaria – a blood disease contracted by the bite of an infected mosquito – kills an estimated 445,000 people each year, mostly children. However, affordable treatments and prevention tools are well known.
Public health officials attending the first World Malaria Congress this week attributed Paraguay's success to the ability of the national health system to detect WHO experts hope to be able to certify the disease. Argentina as a country without malaria by the end of this year, according to Marcos A. Espinal, director of the Department of Communicable Diseases at the Pan American Health Organization
However, other countries are relapsing throughout the region. Panama, Nicaragua, Peru and Venezuela reported more malaria infections in 2016 than in 2010. In Colombia, cases doubled between 2015 and 2016.
Officials claim that the main obstacle is complacency: the number of cases has decreased In many countries, internal resources used to fight malaria have been assigned to other priorities.
"Political will is the most important aspect for eliminating malaria," said Mr. Espinal. "We have effective tools: mosquito nets, vector control methods, treatments, we have reached a certain point – we are seeing the end of the tunnel – and then we may no longer feel engaged in the cause." [19659010] The situation is more serious in Venezuela, where President Nicolás Maduro has refused to accept part of medical donations in the midst of the economic crisis.Malaria infections, as well as famine and tuberculosis, have increased since 2008. [19659011] When Venezuelans cross the border of Guyana, Colombia and northern Brazil, they may carry the infection, according to Alexandre Macedo de Oliveira, researcher on malaria in control and prevention centers. diseases, conditions are conducive to breeding mosquitoes in these areas, which could increase transmission.
there is a government in Venezuela ready to do something to On this subject, the only thing that can be done is to wait, "said Moreno, who also participates in the Council for Malaria Eradication, a group of actions led by Bill Gates. "Mosquitoes do not respect borders," added Moreno
. In recent years, the fight against malaria in Central America has become more complex. Persistent cases are concentrated in rural areas, where communities do not have immediate access to medical care and it is difficult to detect and stop transmission.
Extreme floods can spread mosquito breeding areas, and both types are the main causes of malaria in the region – Anopheles darlingi and Anopheles albitarsis – began to show resistance to insecticides.
Earlier this year, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the Carlos Slim Foundation announced a joint $ 83.6 million contribution to eliminate malaria in Central America and the Dominican Republic.
An absolute priority is to control the insect itself. People working in the field of environmental health minimize mosquito populations by spraying residual insecticides on school walls and vulnerable homes
They also drain water where mosquitoes can reproduce. Hollow and hot concrete blocks and bottle caps are discarded.
But as long as mosquitoes continue to exist, even in countries where malaria is eliminated, the danger of reoccurrence will persist. Paraguay, like any other country with favorable conditions for mosquitoes, will have to maintain a complete surveillance system.
"Preventing a disease is a much better economic investment than fighting it vigorously," said Moreno. "The worst thing to do is to eliminate malaria and bring it back."
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This text was originally published in The New York Times in Spanish. [19659024] The exceptional success of Paraguay in the fight against malaria
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