Around 9,742 cases of malaria were reported in Sindh this year and 100,000 cases were reported last year. PHOTO: FILE
KARACHI: Around 9,742 cases of malaria were reported in Sindh this year and 100,000 cases were reported last year. The director of malaria Control Programme’s Sindh chapter, Dr Nahid Jamali, revealed these statistics in an interview with The Express Tribune on Wednesday.
Jamali explained that incidence of the disease increases in Pakistan between February and April due to the increase in humidity levels and the floods.
“No deaths have been reported from the disease this year,” she said, adding that the programme was running 430 microscopy centres and 180 rapid diagnostic test centres in Sindh. “Most cases of the disease are reported from congested and overpopulated areas such as Thatta, Khairpur, Dadu and Tharparkar.”
A medical consultant at Indus Hospital, Dr Fivzia Herekar, told The Express Tribune that the effects of malaria on the body were more dangerous than dengue.
“People suffer from four types of malaria in Pakistan but two parasites, P-Vavix and P-Falciparum, are more common,” she explained adding that P-Vivax caused anemia, jaundice and decrease the number of platelets in the body while P-Falciparum produced a fluid in the lungs which caused breathing problems, kidney failure and in worst cases, cerebral malaria. “P-Falciparum parasite infects people of all ages while P-Vivax tends to attack red blood cells of children.”
She pointed out that the vaccine to prevent malaria hasn’t been invented as yet and advised people to use mosquito repellents and keep their body parts covered during the rainy season.
“Malaria is our national disease and we should know how to protect ourselves from it,” she added. She also advised people to consult their doctors if they felt fever, fatigue, chill, headaches or began to vomit. “A rapid diagnostic test reveals whether or not malarial parasites are present in the patient’s body in a few minutes,” said Herekar. “The test is carried out with a strip and doesn’t need complicated medical equipment.” She also felt that doctors should ask patients to get tested for both, Malaria Parasites test and Complete Blood Test.
“The disease is not contagious. It spreads when mosquitoes bite people and carry the parasite to other patients.”
She also felt that malaria patients who took self-prescribed painkillers didn’t realise that they could prove fatal. “Malaria decreases the number of platelets in the body and painkillers such as Diclofenac Sodium decreased them further and made the body less immune to diseases.”
A boy, 15-year-old Azfaruddin, who was diagnosed with malaria on April 16 and recovered three days later, said that he still felt pain in his back.
“I will not forget those four days during which I had a severe fever and vomited everything I ate,” he recalled.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 25th, 2013.
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