WHO report shows an increase in cases of malaria in Dominican Republic

The World Health Organization (who) said yesterday that the only countries where there has been an increase of malaria between 2001 and 2010 have been Dominican Republic, Haiti and Venezuela, although in the case of the latter country it is associated to an increase in tests for diagnosis.

The report points out that the region of the Americas reported 673,000 confirmed cases of malaria in 16 countries in 2010, although it is estimated that transmission occurred in 21 countries and that 30 percent of the population of the continent was exposed in different degrees.

The annual report on malaria in the world Organization of the health (who) presented yesterday in Geneva is encouraging because it points out that the total number of cases on the mainland fell 43 percent in 2009 with respect to the year 2000, with a majority of cases reported in Brazil and Colombia.

However, the first country accumulates only between 50 and 60 percent of the total number of cases of u000ainfected in the Americas

If a sample of 15 countries, the reduction of cases is even more significant and reaches 50 percent between 2001 and 2010.

Therefore el clarifies el report, el Venezuela increase "may reflect a greater effort in terms of diagnosis rather than an increase in the incidence of malaria".

In the case of Haiti was detected an increase in malaria cases after the earthquake of January 2010, but who recognizes that it is difficult to determine if this is a sign of an actual incidence of the disease increase in view of the limitations of the system of health in that country surveillance, or is - in contrast - consequence that the international aid that arrived by the natural disaster improved case detection.

For Dominican Republic, the data do suggest "a higher incidence of malaria in 2005 and 2010 compared to other years".

Of the 21 countries where the health institution considers that u000aThere is the malaria parasite transmission, 17 are found in a level of "control" and four (Argentina, El Salvador, Mexico and Paraguay) are in the run-up to the Elimination of the disease in their territories.

The evaluation also clarifies in 2010 not received reports of the situation in Haiti, Peru and Venezuela.

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