On March 13, the Burundi government declared a malaria outbreak and the data on the outbreak shows the cases continue to mount in the East African country. According to the Ministry of Health (MOH), the cumulative number of malaria cases reported during the first 10 weeks of 2017 is 1,960,620 with 869 deaths.

Anopheles gambiae mosquito Image/CDC
Anopheles gambiae mosquito
Image/CDC

This is higher than the same period in 2016 (1,804,258 cases and 841 deaths) when Burundi saw eight million cases by years end.

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite. People with malaria often experience fever, chills, and flu-like illness. Left untreated, they may develop severe complications and die. In 2015 an estimated 214 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide and 438,000 people died, mostly children in the African Region.

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