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The Guardian

A serious outbreak of malaria in Burundi has reached epidemic proportions, killing almost as many people as the Ebola crisis in the nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo.
The outbreak in the tiny Great Lakes country has infected almost half the total population, killing about 1,800 people since the beginning of the year.
According to figures gathered by the World Health Organisation, almost 6 million cases have been recorded since the first week of January to the end of July, with infections reaching crisis levels in May.
The figures look on course to outstrip the epidemic of 2017, when more 6 million cases were recorded for the whole year.
The situation has continued to worsen as the government of Burundi has refused to declare an emergency.
WHO declares Congo Ebola outbreak a global health emergency
The scale of the outbreak was described in the latest report for the UN’s office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, which warned that the outbreak had reached “epidemic” proportions.
“The national malaria outbreak response plan, which is currently being validated, has highlighted a lack of human, logistical and financial resources for effective response,” reported the organisation.
The organisation and other experts have blamed a number of issues for the crisis, including low use of preventive measures and a vulnerable population with low levels of resistance.
Experts have also noted an increase in drug resistant strains of the disease in common with other parts of the world.


The climate crisis has been cited as a contributing factor.
Mosquitoes, which spread the disease, are reaching higher altitudes in the mountainous country, and have displayed behavioural changes including more aggressive feeding habits.
The country’s agricultural policies have also encouraged an increase in rice production that has seen farmers encroach on mosquito-infested areas.
Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou may have found solution to malaria drug resistance
While Burundi has long struggled with malaria, the figures for the current outbreak suggest a 50 per cent increase compared to the equivalent period last year.
The UN organisation noted bleakly that the number of health districts that have passed the epidemic threshold had continued to increase.

Although Burundi declared a national health emergency in 2017 after 1.8 million cases and 700 deaths were recorded, it has declined to declare one for the current outbreak, apparently concerned of the potential impact ahead of elections slated for next year.
“We are less than a year away from the presidential election,” one anonymous official said.
Seven of the most deadly viruses, from Ebola to rabies – hidden killers that are the biggest threat
“[President Pierre] Nkurunziza, who is facing many crises, does not want to recognise what could be considered a failure of his health policy,” the official said.
The country has been in the throes of a crisis since 2015 when Nkurunziza ran for a third term and was re-elected, while most the opposition boycotted the polls.
At least 1,000 people were killed and more than 400,000 displaced in violence the UN says was mostly carried out by state security forces.
Additional reporting by Agence France-Presse


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Africa

Burundi malaria ‘epidemic’ rages as half the population infected

A young woman gets injected with an Ebola vaccine, in Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo: Reuters

Anopheles gambiae mosquitos, a vector for the malaria parasite, hang on a net at the International Centre for Insect Physiology and Ecology (ICIPE) insect research facility in Nairobi, Kenya. Photo: EPA

Seven of the most deadly viruses, from Ebola to rabies – hidden killers that are the biggest threat

A Congolese health worker administers Ebola vaccine to a boy who had contact with an Ebola sufferer in the village of Mangina in North Kivu province of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Photo: Reuters/Olivia Acland

E0470C Microscopic view of smallpox. Photo: ALAMY [FEATURES VIRAL 2018]

F3H85X Filamentous Ebola virus particles (colored blue) budding from a chronically-infected VERO E6 cell (colored yellow) Photo: ALAMY [FEATURES VIRAL 2018]

DNDX22 Conceptual image of rabies virus. Photo: ALAMY [FEATURES VIRAL 2018]

E5R34N Transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of filamentous Marburg virus. Photo: ALAMY [FEATURES VIRAL 2018]

JFEEB3 Color enhanced transmission electron micrograph (TEM) of Hantavirus particles. Hantavirus is a respiratory disease carried in wild rodents such as deer mice. Mice do not appear ill while carrying the hantavirus. People become infected after breathing airborne particles of urine, droppings or saliva from infected rodents. Hantavirus causes flu-like symptoms that eventually cause the lungs to fill with fluid, making breathing diffucult. Medical attention must be sought as soon as infection is detected. Most cases of Hantavirus reported in the U.S. have been in the rural Western states. Photo: ALAMY [FEATURES VIRAL 2018]

HX320F Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), computer illustration. HIV is an RNA (ribonucleic acid) virus from the Retroviridae family that causes acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS). Photo: ALAMY [FEATURES VIRAL 2018]

CEEB06 Flu virus H1N1 H5N1 influenza A virus particle virion. Swine flu, avian flu particle structure.3D illustration isolated on white Photo: ALAMY [FEATURES VIRAL 2018]

Nobel Prize winner Tu Youyou may have found solution to malaria drug resistance

Tu Youyou receives the Nobel Prize for medicine in 2015. Tu said making two changes to the way artemisinin is used to treat malaria may solve the problem of resistance. Photo: Reuters

Mothers wait for their sick babies to receive treatment at the beginning of the Malaria vaccine implementation pilot programme at Mitundu Community hospital in Malawi's capital district of Lilongwe, on April 23, 2019. (Photo by AMOS GUMULIRA / AFP)

News

World


UN said 5.7 million cases of malaria had been recorded in Burundi in 2019
Tiny country of 11 million people has still not declared a national emergency



Malaria has killed more than 1,800 people in Burundi this year, a death toll rivalling a deadly Ebola outbreak in neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo.


Disease

Burundi malaria ‘epidemic’ rages as half the population infected

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} UN said 5.7 million cases of malaria had been recorded in Burundi in 2019 Tiny country of 11 million people has still not declared a national emergency

UN said 5.7 million cases of malaria had been recorded in Burundi in 2019

Tiny country of 11 million people has still not declared a national emergency