In the rural areas of Esmeraldas there is an increase in malaria cases, amid the pandemic caused by COVID-19.
The Medical Edition platform warned about this health problem that further complicates the country’s health situation.
There is a significant increase in Malaria P. falciparum, associated with severe forms and increased mortality in the Chachis communities, north of Esmeraldas. This was reported by William Cevallos, a research professor at the Institute of Biomedicine of the Central University of Ecuador (UCE), who is conducting an active surveillance study of dengue and Zika in this province.
Cevallos mentioned that cases are also registered in the city of Esmeraldas, but due to the lack of active control, timely diagnosis or adequate treatment, the outbreak can spread to other locations.
The factors that influence this outbreak, in the opinion of Cevallos, is due to the decrease in resources for the control of epidemic and endemic diseases, such as malaria, dengue, Zika, Chikungunya, among others, and the little response capacity of the Ministry of health.
Regarding this second cause, he explained, it is because the Ministry allocates its economic and human resources to attend to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“At this time, the Health District 08D02 of the Eloy Alfaro canton, to which these communities belong, only have hydroxychloroquine, that is, they do not even have to fully treat P. vivax malaria, which is the one that causes fewer cases serious ”, he claimed.
He alerted authorities that co-infection of coronavirus with arbovirus can occur, and can be fatal. Like the cases of “corona-dengue” that have been registered in some coastal cities.
He recalls that, until a few years ago, cases of this type of malaria, P. falciparum, were no longer reported, and those that were reported were mostly due to P. vivax. Today, he has laboratory confirmed cases.
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