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Worldwide, progress against the disease has been halted. 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 most important
"It's one of those diseases that hang on to", claimed Luis Alberto Moreno President of Inter-American Development Bank ] which funds the main efforts of fight against the malaria in America.
"If we do not accelerate to the bottom – if we do not focus deeply on the problem – malaria will come back"
WHO Malaria – a disease of blood 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 who attended the first World Malaria Congress this week attributed Paraguay's success to the ability of the national health system to rapidly detect cases and investigate whether the disease has have been transmitted locally or have been imported.
Argentina
The WHO experts hope to be able to certify Argentina as a malaria-free country 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.
"The political will is the most important aspect to eliminate malaria" said Espinal "We have effective tools: mosquito nets, vector control methods, We have reached a certain point – see the end of the tunnel – and then we risk no longer feeling engaged in the cause "
The situation is more serious in Venezuela, where President Nicolás Maduro refused to accept most medical donations in the midst of the economic crisis Malaria infections, as well as famine and tuberculosis, have increased since 2008.
When Venezuelans cross the border into Guyana, Colombia and the northern part of In Brazil, they may carry the infection, according to Alexandre Macedo de Oliveira, a researcher on malaria at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the conditions are favorable for the reproduction of malaria. in these areas, which could increase transmission.
"Until a Venezuelan government is ready to do anything, the only thing to do is wait" said Mr. Moreno, who is participating also to the Council for the eradication of malaria, a group of coordination actions. directed 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 immediately have access to medical care and transmission is difficult to detect and stop.
Extreme floods can spread mosquito breeding areas, and both types that are the main causes of malaria in the region – Anopheles Darlingi and Anopheles albitars – have begun 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 contribution of $ 83.6 million 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 insecticides on school walls and vulnerable homes, a technique called indoor residual spraying.
They also drain water where mosquitoes can reproduce. Hollow and hot concrete blocks and discarded bottle caps.
But as long as mosquitoes continue to exist, even in countries where malaria is eliminated, the danger of re-emergence 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 far better economic investment than fighting it with all the might." noted Moreno . "The worst thing to do is to eliminate malaria and bring it back" . (NYTIMES.COM)
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