Ebola Link To Rising Malaria Deaths In Guinea

Malaria situation in Guinea is worsening due to the Ebola crisis, which outbreak in West Africa last year was recorded as the largest and most complex in the history of the viral disease.

After a seeming decline in incidents of Ebola infection and hope that the crisis would soon be over, the World Health Organization (WHO) reports that there are 5 new cases of the deadly disease in Guinea.

With this latest development, the West African nation now has 127 suspected and confirmed Ebola cases and 83 fatalities.

Ebola has claimed more than 10,000 lives since the viral outbreak in 2014, affecting more than 27,000 people most of whom live in Liberia, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Nigeria.

Before the Ebola outbreak in Guinea, malaria epidemic was already being addressed by staff from Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). But, the MSF encountered an entirely different case that worried them and so they reported it to their office in Geneva.

Investigation led to the discovery of a type of haemorrhagic fever, which was then undetermined if caused by the Marburg virus or Ebola.

It turned out Ebola. What’s worse it’s Ebola Zaire, the most dangerous of the 5 virus species.

Yet, it’s not just Ebola that health authorities must now seriously deal with. Malaria cases continue to be on the rise, now claiming more lives than Ebola according to a new study.

People are afraid of going to health clinics, where they think they can get infected by the deadly virus.

Experts who conducted the study estimated that there are about 74,000 untreated malaria cases. These data are based on their observation of number of malaria patients who have visited health facilities and number of malaria medicines distributed among Ebola affected regions, as against those Ebola-free areas.

Compared to Ebola, according to Nets for Life Africa, malaria has already caused about 15,000 deaths in 2013.

Health officials are now also very concerned that due to the Ebola outbreak, which has further weakened Guinea’s poor health system, vaccination coverage could have been also compromised. This could lead to a resurgence of other highly-infectious diseases like polio and measles.