The rapid expansion in Africa of the invasive Anopheles stephensi mosquito, which can breed practically anywhere and is not fussy about water, is being closely monitored by SA scientists, who say it has the potential to increase malaria transmission in areas currently free of the disease.
A senior scientist from the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) said An. stephensi was originally confined to South Asia and the Arabian Peninsula but is now widespread in the Horn of Africa and has been detected in Kenya.
BusinessLIVE reports that it is more difficult to control than other species and thrives in urban areas, and if it takes hold in the SADC region could reverse hard-won gains in reducing malaria transmission.
“It can breed in both rural and urban areas,” said the head of the NICD’s laboratory for antimalarial resistance monitoring and malaria operational research, Jaishree Raman.
“It appears resistant to various insecticides, and can spread both plasmodium falciparum and plasmodium vivax malaria,” she said.
The malaria-transmitting mosquito species currently found in SA, of which there are several species, spread only P. falciparum.
The latest data from the NICD, which include both indigenous and imported cases, show 5 813 malaria cases were reported in the 2022-2023 malaria season.
The NICD said it was concerned that almost 1 200 people were diagnosed with severe malaria, suggesting they were not diagnosed timeously.
It also drew attention to suboptimal treatment for severe malaria in some healthcare facilities, particularly in the private sector, which gave patients intravenous quinine instead of the safer and more effective intravenous artesunate.
“Intravenous artesunate provides roughly 23%-35% better treatment outcomes,” the NICD cautioned.
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