Malaria mostly ‘imported’

July 13, 2012, 9:45 pm

by Don Asoka Wijewardena

Most of malaria cases detected in the country during the first six months of 2012 were those who had come from abroad, according to the Health Ministry.

Health Ministry Secretary Dr. Palitha Maheepala told the media conference at the Sri Lanka Foundation Institute, Colombo recently that only 64 cases of Malaria had been reported in the first half of 2012. Of that about 44 were those who had come from abroad. "Many government organisations, such as the National Malaria Control Programme, the Sri Lanka Ports Authority, the Bandaranaike International Airport, the Central Environmental Authority, the HIV/AIDS Control Programme, the TB Control Programme, the Global Fund for Malaria, entomologists and consultant physicians, will be responsible for a campaign to eliminate Malaria by 2014,"

Dr. Maheepala said that in 1936 and 1937 around 80,000 people had died of Malaria. In 1991 about 40,268 Malaria cases had been detected. But in 2003, the spread of the disease had shown a downward trend. In 2011 only 176 cases had been detected, he said, noting that, 124 of them had been detected within the country and 52 cases were migrants.

Though the spread of Malaria was low in Sri Lanka, more tourists from Malaria-infected countries, such as Africa, Haiti and India were visiting Sri Lanka. Most of the Malaria cases revealed that the patients were infected with plasmodium falciparum (Brain Malaria).

Dr. Maheepala added that Malaria was a curable disease and patient must take the prescribed treatment according to physicians’ instructions.