The Ebola epidemic may have caused 74,000 cases of malaria to be untreated in Guinea last year, researchers warn today.
Guinea is a country with intense, year-round, nationwide malaria transmission. Ebola led to many health facilities in Guinea being closed and where they were open, attendance fell dramatically due to fear of Ebola.
The experts, led by Dr Mateusz Plucinski, of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, USA, say they estimate that around 74,000 fewer malaria cases than expected were seen at health facilities in Guinea in 2014. Their estimates are based on a survey of public health facilities, in which they sampled 60 health facilities in the most Ebola-affected districts, and 60 in districts unaffected by Ebola. Interviews were also carried out with health care workers to establish the impact of Ebola on outpatient visits, malaria cases, and malaria treatments.
Details appear in The Lancet Infectious Diseases today (24 June). Dr Plucinski believes that number of malaria deaths "is likely to greatly exceed the total number of deaths caused by Ebola itself".
"Outpatient attendance fell dramatically, by nearly half (42%) in certain age groups in the worst affected areas, with the number of treated malaria cases dropping by up to 69%," he adds.
One problem is that the early symptoms of malaria (fever, headache, and body aches) mimic those of Ebola virus disease. Malaria is one of the main causes of fever and health facilities visits in Guinea, but our data suggest that since the start of the Ebola epidemic people with fevers have avoided clinics for fear of contracting Ebola or being sent to an Ebola treatment centre."
Plucinski, M. M. et al. Effect of the Ebola-virus-disease epidemic on malaria case management in Guinea, 2014: a cross-sectional survey of health facilities. Lancet Infectious Diseases 24 June 2015 doi: 10.1016/S1473-3099(15)00061-4
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