Panic over malaria dismissed

The Institute for Communicable Diseases has assured residents that Pretoria is not "a breeding area for malaria-carrying mosquitoes" despite six cases of malaria being reported in the area.

Lucille Blumberg, the institute's deputy director, said there was nothing to be worried about.

"These are rare events when malaria-infected mosquitoes are translocated in cars, suitcases or aeroplanes by travel-makers returning home from holidays. So people do not need to be worried because Pretoria does not have the right climate for the breeding of malaria mosquitoes," she said.

Malaria was detected in six patients in Pretoria with no recent travel history. Three cases were detected in Soshanguve and another three in a private housing estate.

Investigation of these cases did not find the type of mosquito with a potential to spread malaria, and no evidence was found that the disease could be spreading locally.

Blumberg, however, urged people who had recently travelled to countries such as Mozambique and Zimbabwe, and other tropical African countries, to get tested if they had flu-like symptoms.

"This is very important because malaria is difficult to diagnose. In many cases, it is dismissed and treated as flu. If you have flu-like symptoms and have a recent travel history, then you need to get tested. Every year fit, young people with a travel history die of malaria because it was missed."

Certain lowveld areas of Mpumalanga, Limpopo and northern KwaZulu-Natal are also considered high-risk areas.

Information on the institute's website states that, during the first quarter of last year, 4560 cases of malaria were identified compared with 2681 for the corresponding period in 2010 - a 41% increase. Many of these cases were associated with travel to other African countries.

Blumberg said chances of a malaria outbreak caused by travelling mosquitoes were minimal because they "must first survive the journey and then bite for it to cause malaria infection".

She added that mosquitoes transported from malaria areas only lived for a short period. The types of mosquito commonly found in Gauteng did not have the ability to spread malaria.

A Lancet study released on Friday says the number of deaths due to malaria is significantly higher than previously estimated by the World Health Organisation.

According to Christopher Murray and colleagues at the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, at the University of Washington, Seattle, there were 1.24million deaths from malaria worldwide in 2010, about twice the figure of 655000 estimated by the WHO.

The journal says annual malaria mortality peaked in 2004 at 1.82million. Since then, there has been a 32% reduction in malaria deaths, driven mainly by "accelerated decreases" in sub-Saharan Africa.

The journal states that "malaria might be a far more important cause of childhood mortality than previously thought".