In a follow-up to a report three weeks ago concerning the ongoing malaria epidemic in Venezuela, health officials now have put the case tally in the epidemic to 105,757, according to a local media report (computer translated).
The number of cases in 2015 is the highest number recorded since Venezuela began keeping records in 1936. 88,500 malaria patients were reported in all of 2014.
The bulk of the cases have been reported in Bolivar state, which accounts for 79.82% of cases (84,418 cases) and Amazonas accounts for 13.57%. Some 10,000 cases have been seen in children under the age of 10.
The cumulative figure to date shows a 110 percent increase compared to the previous five years.
Malaria is considered the most important parasitic disease affecting humans. The female Anopheles mosquito serves as the vector for the parasite.
The mosquito-borne disease continues to sicken and kill far too many people each year, most of them children. In 2012, roughly 207 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide resulting in 627,000 deaths, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). In 2013, 97 countries had ongoing malaria transmission, placing 3.4 billion people at risk for the disease.
Robert Herriman is a microbiologist and the Editor-in-Chief of Outbreak News Today and the Executive Editor of The Global Dispatch
Follow @bactiman63
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Image/CDC
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