Why we need to tackle malaria and Ebola together

Mass drug treatment for malaria is a key step towards preventing a rise in the mosquito-borne disease in Ebola-stricken countries and to ease the burden on medical staff, a leading disease control expert said on Tuesday.

Sierra Leone began a campaign on Friday to protect 2.4 million people – nearly half its population – from malaria, reducing pressure on health services from people visiting clinics wrongly fearing they have Ebola.

“It is a good example of how looking at the broader picture is the right approach – because the number one killer in Sierra Leone is malaria, not Ebola,” Fatoumata Nafo-Traore, executive director of Roll Back Malaria, an alliance of global groups, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.

“We can’t win the fight against either disease by looking at it in isolation.”

More than 9,300 trained community health workers in Sierra Leone have been going door-to-door in districts where the risk of Ebola is highest to administer anti-malarial tablets to people aged six months and above.

Families will also be educated on the similarities of the symptoms of Ebola and malaria and the importance of taking the life-saving medicine during the campaign spearheaded by UNICEF, the United Nations’ children’s agency.

Malaria symptoms of fever, headache and aching joints are similar to Ebola in its early stages, said Nafo-Traore, a former health minister of Mali.

“The disease is easily misdiagnosed at this stage and as a result many people going to Ebola treatment centres turn out to have malaria,” she said. “That puts extra pressure on health staff dealing with Ebola but also means people affected by malaria may not get the treatment they need quickly enough.”

The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday that the deadly Ebola outbreak has had a “devastating impact” on malaria treatment in West Africa and the roll-out of malaria control programmes.

In Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia — the countries worst hit by Ebola — many inpatient clinics are closed and attendance at outpatient facilities is a fraction of rates seen before the outbreak, it said.

Some 6.6 million people fell ill with malaria in 2013 and 20,000 died in Sierra Leone, Guinea and Liberia, the WHO said. At least 6,331 people have died of Ebola in the three countries.

UNICEF will kick off a second round of the anti-malaria drug distribution in Sierra Leone next month. (Editing by Rosalind Russell)

This article is published in collaboration with the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Publication does not imply endorsement of views by the World Economic Forum.

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Author: Astrid Zweynert is the Editor of Trust.org.

Image: Ward physician Thomas Klotzkowski and doctor for tropical medicine Florian Steiner (L) put on protective suits at the quarantine station for patients with infectious diseases at the Charite hospital in Berlin August 11, 2014. REUTERS/Thomas Peter