The 2014 Ebola outbreak in Guinea may have led to tens of thousands of malaria cases being left untreated, according to a new study conducted by the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta.
The study, entitled "Effect of the Ebola-Virus-Disease Epidemic on Malaria Case Management in Guinea, 2014: A Cross-Sectional Survey of Health Facilities," compared the number of malaria cases before and after the Ebola outbreak by conducting a survey in 60 health facilities from the four locations worst hit by the outbreak and 60 health facilities from four locations not affected by Ebola.
The research team also analyzed the number of malaria prescriptions given before and during the outbreak.
The results show that there were 74,000 fewer malaria cases treated in health centers in 2014 compared to previous years. Malaria treatment cases for outpatient clinics in areas worst hit by Ebola went down by 42 percent. Furthermore, the number of people who sought treatment for suspected malaria also went down by 69 percent.
"The reduction in the delivery of malaria care because of the Ebola-virus-disease epidemic threatens malaria control in Guinea," the authors of the study write. "Untreated and inappropriately treated malaria cases lead to excess malaria mortality and more fever cases in the community, impeding the Ebola-virus-disease response."
Mateusz Plucinski, lead author of the study, said one of the factors that may have caused the increase in untreated malaria cases is that people have been avoiding going to health centers for fear of contracting Ebola.
"One problem is that the early symptoms of malaria mimic those of Ebola virus disease," Plucinski said, according to The Guardian.
"Malaria is one of the main causes of fever and health facilities visits in Guinea, but our data suggest that since the start of the Ebola epidemic, people with fevers have avoided clinics for fear of contracting Ebola or being sent to an Ebola treatment centre," he added.
Because of so many untreated cases, the number of deaths caused by malaria may have exceeded the number of deaths caused by Ebola, which currently stands at 2,444, BBC News reported.
The World Health Organization recommended that in the face of the Ebola epidemic, everyone who has a fever should be given medicines for malaria, particularly in those areas gravely affected by the outbreak.
"Malaria control efforts and care delivery must be kept on track during an Ebola epidemic so that progress made in malaria control is not jeopardised and Ebola outbreak response is not impeded," Plucinski said.
The study was published in the June 23 issue of the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.
