04/26/2017
Press Release No 065, 2017
- The Decennial Public Health Plan against the disease indicates the elimination of malaria as the 2031 goal
Bogotá, D.C., April 25, 2017. Within the framework of the World Day against Malaria, the Ministry of Health and Social Protection reiterated the message to curb the prevalence of urban transmission to territorial entities where this disease is endemic. The morbimortality of this pathology has advanced significantly in the country in the last decade.
Diego Alejandro García, Deputy Director of Communicable Diseases, revealed the country's challenges to malaria: "The main challenges in the fight against malaria are related to maintaining the reduction in mortality and morbidity achieved in the last ten years; implement cross-sector strategies to ensure the sustainability of health promotion and disease prevention actions, and reduce malaria complications and mortality in endemic areas with illegal mining," he said.
He said the prospect in the Americas region indicates that it is an endemic disease in 21 countries, including Colombia." The number of new malaria cases in the region fell by 31%, from 900,000 cases annually to 580,000, and mortality was reduced by about 40%," he said.
In Colombia, between 2002 and 2016, malaria cases increased from 120,000 to an average of 75,000 cases a year, "which corresponds to a 40% reduction in morbidity. In addition, there was a decrease in deaths from this cause greater than 60%, from 120 deaths per year at the beginning of the period, to 45 deaths in recent years," he said.
Deputy Director García indicated that the Provinces that carry the main burden of the disease are Chocó, Cauca, Nariño, Córdoba, Antioquia, Bolívar, Risaralda, Vichada, Amazonas, Guainía, Guaviare and Buenaventura district. In 2016, 83,356 cases were reported and 39 deaths were recorded in the country.
The 2012-2021 Decennial Public Health Plan, under healthy life and communicable diseases section, defined the goals of elimination of peri-urban malaria in the endemic Pacific municipalities, continue reducing mortality, and reducing morbidity by 40%.
What is malaria?
Malaria is a parasitic disease present in the tropics, transmitted to susceptible persons, by the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes, previously infected with parasites of the Plasmodium genus, from patients with the disease. It is a complex and multidimensional event caused by the interaction of social, economic, political, cultural and biological determinants that explain its endemic or epidemic transmission.
Since 2005, the World Malaria Day has been celebrated every 25th of April with the purpose of promoting, visibilizing, arousing interest and achieving active participation and prominence of the different institutional and social actors involved in the malaria issue.
Historically malaria has been one of the major global public health problems due to its enormous social and economic burden on the population of countries located in tropical areas of different continents. Between 2010 and 2015, the incidence of malaria cases decreased by 21% and deaths from malaria by 29% globally.
There are still barriers to controlling it, such as the movement of populations to endemic areas, where extensive exploitation of illegal mining and illicit crops occurs, as well as the quality of rural housing, peri-domicile sanitation problems and expansion of the agricultural frontier and logging, among others.
