Malaria sweeps through parts of SA

ON New Year’s Eve, Elmien Fourie was rushed to the Evander Hospital in Mpumalanga. For days she had been unwell but no one seemed to know what was wrong with her.

A day later Fourie was in an induced coma at the Charlotte Maxeke Academic Hospital after being diagnosed with cerebral malaria.

She had become the latest casualty of a malaria epidemic sweeping South Africa.

By Thursday Fourie’s condition, according to a Facebook page set up to raise funds for her, had improved, with her still in ICU but no longer sedated.

The 20- year- old was believed to have contracted malaria in her home town, Musina in Limpopo – a province which has seen a marked increase in the number of cases over the past year.

As South Africans head home from their holiday destinations, health professionals fear they may return with malaria, and not realise they are ill.

“Cases have increased enormously, including in some of the historical areas, where the disease has not been seen in more recent years,” said Professor Lucille Blumberg, deputy director of the National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD).

“We’re looking at three times the usual figure.”

There was a rise in the number of deaths from malaria last year.

“The message for returning travellers is to be aware of the symptoms. If they think it is just a babalaas or jet lag… and they get severe malaria, some of them will die,” warned Blumberg. Symptoms include body aches, pains, fever and headaches.

Mosquitoes may arrive from malaria areas by car, truck or taxi and transmit the disease locally, which, because it is unexpected, often has a delayed diagnosis and a high mortality.

What’s driving this epidemic is the increased rainfall, delays in mosquito control insecticide spraying and the usual movement of people during the festive season.

Meanwhile, international scientists announced a major breakthrough in the fight against the disease. They claimed they had found that the malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax hijacks the human transferrin receptor protein, responsible for delivering iron to the body’s red blood cells. The researchers were also able to develop antibodies that prevented the parasite from latching on to the transferring receptor protein.

The parasite is not common in South Africa, but local scientists believe the study is a breakthrough in the fight against malaria.

PICTURE: BRUCE SUTHERLAND The barren state of Theewaterskloof Dam, in the midst of the worst drought in the Western Cape in almost 100 years. Water remains a critical local resource.