Buzz over Pretoria malaria mystery
A healthcare team is trying to find the source of the malaria infections that killed two Pretoria North residents recently.
The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) launched an investigation this week after Doornpoort residents Cheryl Pieterse and Jolynn Hocanin died of the disease within days of each other.
Neither had travelled to a known malaria transmission area.
The NICD said it was likely the women got malaria from a bite by an infected anopheles mosquito from a malaria-endemic area.
The institute said it was possible the infected mosquito was translocated via a vehicle, such as a minibus, car or aeroplane, or in a suitcase.
“These incidents are rare, but a few cases of Odyssean malaria are confirmed each year and coincide with the seasonal increase in malaria cases from January to April,” said the statement. “These cases do not represent an expansion in the malaria transmission areas in South Africa.”
On Wednesday, the NICD reported another two cases of malaria in Swartruggens in the North West.
Again, neither person had travelled to a known malaria transmis- sion area. One has since died.
“These two cases are not linked in any way to the cases reported in Doornport,” the NICD said.
People in Pretoria, especially residents in Doornpoort, are worried that more people could be infected.
Self-taught malaria expert Jon McKenna said these concerns could be justified. “I have had malaria twice and have done a lot of research on the disease,” he said.
“Plasmodium falciparum (PF) malaria, almost exclusively endemic to Southern Africa, does not gestate for months and years or recur like the other three forms found in central and west Africa.”
He said if a person was bitten by an infected female anopheles mosquito carrying PF, they would present symptoms within one week to a month.
“When one is cured, one has to be re-bitten to be reinfected by this type of plasmodium,” McKenna said.
“If these two unfortunate women have not travelled to a known malaria area in the past month or so, then I believe there is huge cause for concern.
“The only other way this could have manifested would be for someone to have brought an infected mosquito into the area. Anopheles mosquitoes could exist and breed in places like Pretoria North,” he said.
“If there is a nearby infected population, then this is the final link in the equation.”
A team comprising members of the Vector Control Reference Laboratory at the NICD and district health services environmental health and communicable disease control experts are investigating.
The NICD said that malaria treatment is very effective if administered early. Unfortunately, the cases in question were diagnosed late due to the nonspecific signs and symptoms of malaria and the absence of a travel history to a known malaria transmission area. Healthcare practitioners are encouraged to be vigilant for malaria in patients with unexplained fever and flu-like illness, even in the absence of a travel history. – Caxton News Service
If there is a nearby infected population, then this is the final link in the equation.