Fighting Malaria Along With Covid-19

Information from the World Health Organisation (WHO) indicates that experience from previous disease outbreaks show the disruptive effect on health service delivery and the consequences for diseases such as malaria. Reports indicate that this was evident from 2014-2016 during the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone, for example, as undermined malaria control efforts led to a massive increase in malaria-related illnesses and death in the three countries. It is within this backdrop that officials of the WHO are particularly concerned about the spread of Covid-19 in malaria-affected areas. As such, WHO has underlined the critical importance of sustaining efforts to prevent, detect and treat malaria, using best practices to protect health workers and communities from Covid-19 infection as the world lead-up to this year’s World Malaria Day on the theme “Zero malaria starts with me.”
Currently, health systems are overwhelmed with direct mortality from the Covid-19 outbreak and indirect mortality from vaccine-preventable and treatable conditions which are also increasing. WHO Director for Global Malaria Programme, Dr Pedro Alonso, says malaria-affected countries in Africa will need to make difficult decisions to balance the demands of responding directly to Covid-19, while simultaneously engaging in strategic planning and coordinated action to maintain essential health service delivery, all in a bid to mitigate the risk of a collapse in their health system. The WHO guidance with respect to malaria diagnosis and treatment remains the same. However, the organisation has indicated that additional special measures may be needed in the context of Covid-19.  
In an operational planning guideline in the fight against malaria, WHO notes that, in addition to routine approaches to malaria control, there may be a case for special measures in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic-such as a temporary return to presumptive malaria treat...