October 11, 2022

12:10

Bruno Pacheco – from Amazon Agency

MANAUS – Amazonas registered 38,718 cases of malaria from January to September 2022, according to data from the Amazonas Health Surveillance Foundation – Dr. Rosemary Costa Pinto (FVS-RCP). The number represents a drop of 13.5% if compared to the same period, when 44,784 infections were confirmed. Experts talk about maintaining care because of the beginning of the rainy season in the state – October to November, which can increase and cause the incidence of other diseases such as dengue.

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“Despite the drop in the number of new cases, we have to continue in the prevention: avoid being exposed in the late afternoon, when the female comes and stings people; use the ‘mosqueteiro’ with insecticide, which is an excellent product in the control of malaria. And, if you have any fever, look for the care center in your neighborhood and city immediately, because you can prevent this person from being the focus of infection for others”, alerted the infectious disease physician Nelson Barbosa.

Malaria is an acute febrile infectious disease caused by protozoa of the genus Plasmodium and is transmitted by the infected female Anopheles mosquito at the time of the bite on humans. In Brazil, three species are associated with malaria: P. vivax, P. falciparum, and P. malarie. The most common symptoms in people are high fever, chills, and lack of appetite.

“The Plamodium falciparum disease is the most serious form. It can give cerebral malaria, affecting the kidneys and killing the person. The Plasmodium vivax malaria, the main complication is the spleen rupture, which can also kill the person”, pointed out Nelson Barbosa.

In Amazonas, according to the manager of Vector-Transmission Diseases – Malaria of the Department of Environmental Surveillance (GDTV-Malaria/DVA/FVS-RCP), Myrna Barata, the malaria seasonality happens between the months of June and September, approximately. From October to November, which already begins the rainy season, the care should be with arbovisors, such as dengue, caused by the bite of Aedes aegypti.

“The peak of malaria in the state happens in the dry season, and now, in the rainy season, comes our watchful eye for small breeding sites related to the prevention of arboviroses”, Myrna Barata pointed out.

Malaria in the AM

In the whole last year, Amazonas was the state that registered the most malaria infections, with almost 40% of the country’s cases, according to data from the Ministry of Health. In all, there were 57,194 cases of the disease, from January to December 202, in Amazonian soil, while in all of Brazil, there were 145,000 positive diagnoses.

Manaus, even being the most populated city, with 2.2 million people (according to data from the Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics – IBGE), was not the first in numbers of malaria infections. The capital of Amazonas was third, with a total of 4,459 cases of the disease in 2021, behind only the cities of São Gabriel da Cachoeira (9,010 cases) and Barcelos (9,144).

This year, the numbers of the disease have been dropping. Only in the month of September 2022, the total number of infected was 7,147 cases, a drop of 49% if compared to the same period in 2021, when the FVS-RCP recorded 14,087 infections.

Actions

In Amazonas, the reduction in malaria cases is stimulated by preventive actions from the State health agencies. In April this year, through FVS-RCP, governor Wilson Lima delivered 524 pieces of equipment to fight malaria and dengue to strengthen the control of diseases in the interior of the state. The equipment served the 61 municipalities in the Amazons coutryside.

In addition, FVS-RCP has distributed mosquito nets impregnated with insecticide that have been used to inhibit malaria in the interior of Amazonas. The foundation is responsible for health surveillance in the region and works in monitoring diseases, which includes the prevention of those transmitted by vectors, such as malaria.

According to the folder, Amazonas Health Surveillance technicians are part of a project to evaluate the impact of the use of these second generation mosquito nets on malaria control in areas of active transmission, in the municipality of Humaitá (590 kilometers from Manaus). The study takes place in the last quarter of 2022 and had its practical part in the second half of September.

The initiative takes place in partnership with the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz) and the Ministry of Health. In the Amazon, the technicians involved in the action are part of the Management of Vector-borne Diseases – Malaria of the Department of Environmental Surveillance (GDTV-Malaria/DVA) of the Health Surveillance Foundation of Amazonas – Dr. Rosemary Costa Pinto (FVS-RCP), linked to the State Department of Health (SES-AM).

“Mosquito nets impregnated with insecticide are already being used to prevent malaria in the interior of Amazonas. One of the expected goals of the study is also to know the acceptance of this tool by the population”, said the manager of GDTV-Malaria, Myrna Barata.