Press Release: 2018 WORLD MALARIA DAY (25TH of April)
Malaria is one of the oldest and deadliest enemy; it kills a child every two minutes, it’s the world’s oldest disease and history’s deadliest killer as it kills in one year what HIV/AIDS kill in 15 years. For every death due to HIV/AIDS, there are about 50 deaths due to malaria.
About 70% of malaria death occurs in children under the ages of five. Youngsters are thought to be more vulnerable to malaria due to their developing immune system alongside pregnant women because of associated weakened immunity that comes with pregnancy especially those with their first pregnancy.
The disease is caused by parasite (plasmodium species) mostly plasmodium falciparum that spread to people through bites of infected mosquitoes in 97% of cases. Malaria is also associated with blood transfusions and organ transplantation from infected donors.
Malaria in children: after the bite of mosquitoes, children often do not present with symptoms as the parasite completes its life cycle in about 8-18 days depending on the species of plasmodium. They then becomes restless, drowsy and loss of appetite sets in, young children manifest this disease in different ways but the classic picture of malaria with periodic fever, shivering and sweating is not observed.
Malaria can mimic any fibrile illness and should be suspected in any fibrile child especially in a malaria endemic area like ours. Older children may report aching body, headache, feeling of vomiting /vomiting which is common, mild cough with cold, mild diarrhea with dark green mucoid stool and occasionally, profuse diarrhea with dehydration. Seizures are often common and may occur at onset of malaria even before high fever set in.
Children below 30 days old with malaria implies transplacental transmission with presentation like fever, irritability, refusal to feed, anemia, jaundice and abdominal organ enlargement(spleen and liver).
Malaria in pregnancy: pregnancy is a tricky period as it comes with health problems, but pregnant women often avoid use of medicine to get relief whether they have fever or cold, they prefer to suffer from it rather than take drugs because of the fear of harmful effect it could have on the baby. But what if the fever is something severe like malaria? This could lead to complications in both mother and baby. Possible reasons for vulnerability of pregnant women to malaria include;
- Loss of immunity: the immune system is generally weakened in pregnancy due to decreased immunoglobulin synthesis.
- The new organ placenta that grows within her allows the infection to pass through the immune circle.
Others include area of high endemicity and co infection with HIV.
Signs and symptoms of malaria in pregnancy include: fever, sweating, chills, nausea, cough, diarrhea, jaundice, respiratory difficulties, pale appearance. It is important to recognize and treat malaria in pregnancy at the earliest because of it possible complications on both mother and baby. These complications in the mother includes: anemia, acute pulmonary edema, hypoglycaemia (low blood glucose), cerebral malaria, acute kidney injury and hypotension. On the fetal side it includes: spontaneous abortion, premature delivery, stillbirth, intrauterine growth restriction, low birth weight and intrauterine fetal death.
With the increasing malaria resistance to drug therapy and in line with WHO 2018 malaria day theme: READY TO BEAT MALARIA, KOMSA is also joining hands with other health organization to make malaria history in the confluence state in her maiden 2018 malaria day themed: A PUSH FOR MALARIA PREVENTION. This push for prevention can be achieved through the WHO three pronged approach to prevent and control malaria in children and pregnant women.
- Intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy with an appropriate anti-malaria drug (fansidar) as part of antenatal care services.
- Use of insecticide treated nets: this benefits pregnant women and the children including the family at large, decreasing exposure to malaria infection with a resultant reduced incidence of anemia, risk of death while enhancing development.
- Prompt diagnosis and treatment of malaria in children and pregnant women especially those presenting with symptoms to prevent possible complication in maternal and fetal outcome as the aim is to cure the infection completely to avert complications.
In addition to the above, good nutrition amongst these vulnerable group will help in a long way to build immunity against malaria infection.
The question to us all now is; Are we Ready to Eliminate Malaria? If your answer is YES as that of KOMSA, then let’s join hands to Push for Malaria Prevention in the confluence state so malaria can die and millions can live.
Signed:
Omeiza David Sunday
National President KOMSA
