PAUL KIRK, Johannesburg | Friday 1.30pm
SOUTH Africa may be facing facing the worst outbreak of malaria since 1932 after carrier mosquitos lived through the long hot winter. Making the possibility of an epidemic more probable is the fact that the malaria parasite is now resistant to many of the drugs used to treat it. Says Ros Page of the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Health: “The situation is very bad. In the first six months of this year we have already seen 3_ 000 more cases of malaria than we saw in the whole of last year. And we have not yet entered the peak malaria season. Things always get worse around summer.” The provincial health department — which has minimal resources to fight malaria after spending nearly 75% of its budget on HIV/Aids — has documented 17757 cases of malaria until June this year. There were 11 223 cases for all of 1997 and 14 465 for 1998. The increase is attributed to a number of factors — most significantly the gradual increase in South Africa’s average temperature due to global warming. Dr Andrew Jamieson of British Airways travel clinics keeps a close watch on malaria figures so he can warn tourists of potential risks when travelling in Africa. “We have had a warm winter where the malaria-carrying Anopheles mosquito did not die off to the extent it normally does. As a result we are left with a far greater number of mosquitos that can carry malaria. Now that summer is upon us these mosquitos will breed and exponentially increase the risk of disease. The worst is still to come,” he said.
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