Malaria returns: 32 cases reported in past two weeks

Health officials have warned of a possible revival of malaria in Sri Lanka.

Anti-Malaria Campaign Director H.D.B. Herath told the Sunday Times that, as of August 27 this year there were only 21 cases which is generally the number of cases for eight months.

However, the alarming situation was brought to attention when the total number of patients rose to 32 within two weeks.

He said if immediate medication was not taken this could result in death as a number of cases were of cerebral malaria which affects the brain of the patient and resulted in neurological complications.

“When we eliminated malaria in 2012 a number of cases were reported from the North and the East and other highly peripheral areas. However now the situation has changed, as many cases have been reported from the Sabaragamuwa, Central Southern and Western provinces,” he said.

Dr. Herath said that a large number of malaria cases were reported from the Gampaha district.

Accordingly, reports from the Anti-Malaria Campaign stated that in 2017, 56 cases were reported, while in 2018 48 cases were reported, out of which 47 of them were imported cases of malaria. They believe there was only one case of a local transmission.

He believes that the reason for the revival of malaria in the country is due to the fact that many individuals travel back and forth on a daily basis, and are not aware whether or not they are malaria endemic countries.

“Many of them travel to malaria endemic countries and get infected by the parasite unknowingly and bring it into the country, whereby the parasite matures in the blood steam and gets into the mosquito which in turn spreads the disease,” he explained.

The Anti-Malaria Campaign has brought to the attention of the people that there are preventive treatments which they could receive before traveling overseas to prevent the disease from spreading.

“We are not telling people to stay indoors always to avoid mosquito bites, but we urge them to use practical methods to prevent exposure to mosquito bites, for instances like using a mosquito repellent,” Dr. Herath said.