Article review: Changes in Malaria Epidemiology in Africa and New Challenges for Elimination

Article review: Changes in Malaria Epidemiology in Africa and New Challenges for Elimination

Malaria is an infection caused by mosquito bites that affect humans. The protozoan parasite causing the infection belongs in the genus plasmodium. All infections fall under four classifications, but the species P falciparum is the leading parasite in Africa and is responsible for the most severe cause of malaria. The parasite is transmitted when a mosquito bites a human and deposits saliva in the blood. Mosquitoes prefer aquatic habitats hence the high number of malaria infections in tropical regions. Despite being a treatable disease, malaria continues to have devastating effects on people’s health and livelihoods around the world. Some people are more prone to infections than others. Years of exposure construct a partial immune to malaria. Young children are particularly prone to disease as they have not to build up resistance. Pregnant women are also on the verge of getting malaria. The greatest challenge faced by malaria-prone countries in Africa is inadequate finances for malaria prevention and treatment and prevention services. In sub-Saharan Africa, mosquitoes have mutated and become resistant to insecticides. Besides having high medical costs, the effects of the disease go beyond direct measures of mortality. It reduces school attendance, work productivity, and can, at times, impair intellectual development. In extreme cases, it leads to death.

In Africa, the decline of malaria has been considerably high, although, in remote areas, the reduction has not been as aggressive. A lot of time is spent on estimating its prevalence rather than measuring its burden and finding alternate cures to the disease. Changes in transmission intensity continue to influence emerging populations. Due to the mutation of the disease, it is hard to establish one prevention control measure. Extensive research into the burden is instrumental in identifying steps of elimination. Technological advances towards measuring the prevalence rather than estimating the weight are the solution to this menace.

Nkumama, O’Meara, and Osier (2017)suggest three methods of diagnosing malaria. Clinical diagnosis is the most common method of diagnosis across Africa and globally. Clinical diagnosis is a sure way of identifying the disease even when it continually mutates. Diagnosis by light microscopy is another method applied during diagnosis. Since the 1800s, this method has p[roved to be resourceful. It studies the blood smears through light microscopy to detect parasites in the blood. The accuracy of this method is high when done well. There is, however, a challenge to this method. With inadequate equipment, unqualified staff, limited availability of electricity and reagents, and overload of work, the results are not as accurate. Most countries in Africa are developing with challenges in necessary infrastructure and power found in urban areas. Making people in rural areas unable to access the services, yet they are the population most prone to infection. There is also a diagnosis by Rapid Diagnostic Test (RDT) that uses a single-use test kit to identify circulating antigens in the blood. The availability of this method makes it a preferable choice, as it required no qualification or infrastructure. The results are more conclusive than those from light microscopy. The RDT technology has been influential in diagnosis in Sub Saharan Africa. With an increased diagnosis, treatment, and prevention measures scale up.

Malaria epidemiology is linked to transmission intensity — the parameters of studying malaria focus on the actual infection. Most research focuses on the burden of the disease on the people. More research needs to be done into the generation of the parasite to prevent further transmission. According to Niang et al. (2017), there are various tests to study epidemiology. Parasite rate prevalence looks at the proportion of the population in a location with infection and weighs it against a metric to find the rate of transmission. In so doing, the prevalence of the parasite becomes known, and thus control measures can be taken to avert re-occurrence. The entomological inoculation rate, another testing method, refers to the number of mosquito bites, per person, at any given period. It is also a standard for measuring transmission. This research focused only on the process but not on prevention. Identifying the pathogen is not just but the first step towards implementing strategies to spearhead prevention campaigns.

Taffese. Et a. (2018) evaluated changes in malaria control in Ethiopia a developed new strategies of treatment. The infection rate is high. Epidemic prone zones were areas of above 2500 m elevation. The downside to this research was that areas in lowlands were still inclined to anopheles mosquitoes. Areas in lake-basin where the climate is hot and wet, are a favorable breeding ground for mosquitoes. The research only covered transmission without developing a plan for how to reduce its prevalence.

Abeku et, al. (2015), the changing epidemiology of malaria adopts new intervention to highlight shifts in behavioral, demographic, and geographical characteristics. They focus on clustered locations and the rate of transmission. To understand epidemiology. They focused on changes in vector habits, resistance to insecticide, patterns of infection, drug resistance, and climatic changes. The research identified gaps in determining the resistance of mosquitoes by identifying cost-effective measures. Indoor spraying and mass drug administration were effective in controlling transmission. The study did not actively explain the methods of testing for the parasites. How each environment was tested to see the prevalence of the parasite has a loophole. The technique was not conclusive as there was no uniformity in areas sprayed. This places the research under question as there is no consistent way to prove this theory. The research scope as well was only in Ethiopia. Ethiopia is predominantly hot; hence mosquitoes in the area are adapted differently from those in Tropical zones like central and west Africa.

Different approaches towards attaining sustainable eradication of malaria in Africa are needed to draw the scope of transmission and work on reducing parasite dominance than on the burden caused by the disease. There are various methods of discovering parasites that will eradicate them. The research provides insight into the transmission. The more technology grows, the higher the chances of creating patterns of distribution and forecasting prevalence to completely clear it.