Malaria cases on the rise, says NICD

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) says it has detected a significant increase in malaria cases in the endemic provinces and Gauteng.

NICD spokesperson Sinenhlanhla Jimoh said on Wednesday many cases of severe malaria were due to late presentation or late detection. Undiagnosed and untreated malaria rapidly progressed to severe illness, with a potentially fatal outcome.

"Any individual presenting with fever or flu-like illness, if they reside in a malaria-risk area in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga or have travelled to a malaria-risk area in the past six weeks, must be tested for malaria by blood smear microscopy or malaria rapid diagnostic test," Jimoh said.

The NICD said if the test returns positive for malaria, the patient must be started on malaria treatment immediately.

Patients must inform their healthcare provider of their recent travel, particularly to neighbouring countries and malaria-risk areas in South Africa, so that the healthcare provider is made aware of the possibility of malaria. 

The NICD said Odyssean or “taxi malaria”, transmitted by “hitch-hiking” mosquitoes, should be considered in a patient with unexplained fever who has not travelled to a malaria-endemic area but is getting progressively sicker, with a low platelet count.

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