Malaria attacks migrants and indigenous people in the Americas, according to PAHO

Malaria cases fell in 2021 in the Americas but the disease hits “disproportionately” to indigenous people and migrants, the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO) reported on Tuesday.

“Indigenous, remote and migrant communities” are “disproportionately affected,” it says in a statement its director Jarbas Barbosa, who calls on countries to redouble their efforts to protect the most vulnerable.

The number of cases of paludism or malaria in the region skyrocketed between 2015 and 2019but in 2021 (520,000) it was 13% less than the previous year, specifies the office for the American continent of the World Health Organization (WHO).

The number of deaths also dropped, from 197 in 2019 to 120 in 2021, adds the statement, published to coincide with World Malaria Day.

Malaria is a disease caused by a Plasmodium parasite, transmitted by the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito.

Symptoms, such as fever, headache, and chills, they appear between 10 and 15 days after the bite and can be mild or, if left untreated, “can progress to severe illness and death,” he reports.

“Eliminating malaria is possible” but “it is urgent to mobilize resources” to achieve it, estimates Dr. Barbosa.

“We have the necessary tools to offer diagnosis, highly effective treatment and prevention” but the response must be “adapted to specific settings,” Barbosa said.

In 2018, Paraguay was certified as a malaria-free country, followed by Argentina (2019) and El Salvador (2021). Belize is on track to do so, after three years without the disease.