The Hindu : National : WHO focus on vivax malaria control

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Wednesday, Apr 29, 2009
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WHO focus on vivax malaria control

Aarti Dhar

NEW DELHI: Ways of effectively controlling vivax malaria are at the centre of this year’s World Malaria Day activities in the WHO South-East Asia and Western Pacific Regions.

Representatives from the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, India, Indonesia, the Republic of Korea and Sri Lanka met here recently to discuss ways of containing the spread of vicax malaria. Plasmodium vivax causes malaria symptoms and relapses. Patients infected with this parasite suffer frequent relapses (mainly of fever) within one to three years of a single inoculation against parasites from mosquito bites. Though vivax malaria is not absolutely fatal and the parasites usually cause mild symptoms, compared to the “killer” Plasmodium falciparum, prevalent in sub-tropical Africa, recent evidence from India indicates that it occasionally causes severe manifestations and even death.

Dr. Samlee Plianbangchang, Regional Director of the WHO South-East Asia Region, said: “Malaria in Asia is different from malaria in Africa. Vivax malaria is less known and we need to understand more about its epidemiology and control interventions.”

The years 2000-2010 are a decade of “Roll Back Malaria.”

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