The WHO recently declared Algeria and Argentina malaria-free. Yet, new strains are making the global fight more difficult
be hopeful days for those battling malaria. Deaths from the disease have fallen to around 435,000 a year, from perhaps five times that number a century ago. On May 22nd the World Health Organisation declared Algeria and Argentina malaria-free, bringing to 38 the number of countries now officially rid of the disease. Algeria will be regarded as a particular success because it is in Africa. The continent suffered 90% of an estimated 219m cases worldwide in 2017.
Work at Phuoc Long Hospital in Binh Phuoc province in southern Vietnam, which borders Cambodia, is thus of global interest. The facility’s 250 beds serve around 200,000 people. Funds are tight. As officials hold a morning meeting under a golden bust of Ho Chi Minh, Vietnam’s first communist leader, a toothless former soldier, still in uniform, pushes his bicycle through a courtyard with peeling paint. Doctors proudly show off new equipment for researching malaria.
It also matters how locals behave. In Africa children and pregnant women are especially prone to malaria. In the Mekong it often affects young workers, sometimes engaged in dodgy practices such as illegal logging. Many fail to seek help quickly. Others turn to traditional healers before coming to clinics. Even when given treatment—which is free in countries such as Vietnam—victims often stop taking long courses of medication too soon.
A prevention programme needs both to reduce the number of people bitten by infected mosquitoes and to shorten the time before infected people seek treatment. This requires adequate funding for rural health-care services and outreach programmes. Low-cost, rapid diagnostic tests remain one of the most important tools. Dr Hien slides one across the table in Phuoc Long, saying it is fairly easy and cheap to treat malaria if it is detected in the first three days.
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