Epidemiology Of Haiti Malaria :
| Malaria still remains the most predominant disease that affects a large number of people in Latin America, Caribbean, tropical Africa, Oceania, and South-east Asia. Malaria is primarily caused by four species of Plasmodium, which include P. vivax, P. falciparum, P.ovale and P.malariae. However, majority of the deaths due to malaria are caused due to infection of P. falciparum. |
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Annually, around 300-500 million people get affected with the malaria parasite, out of which around 700,000 succumb to the infection. While infections due to P. falciparum are highly prevalent in Africa, South America, Southeast Asia and Oceania, infections due P.vivax are more common in Central America, Middle East and India. A major point of concern in recent years is that the numbers of people getting infected with the parasite is constantly increasing. This is primarily due to evolution of drug-resistant parasites, evolution of vectors resistant to insecticides, climatic changes and increased traveling to malaria endemic regions.
One of these malaria endemic regions in the world is Haiti. Situated amidst the beautiful Caribbean islands, Republic of Haiti is one of the most densely populated countries in the world. According to W.H.O reports, all the regions inside Haiti are extremely malaria prone. Republic of Haiti has the highest number of malaria cases among Caribbean nations while this region is one of the leading malaria-prone regions in the entire Western Hemisphere. Malaria infections in Haiti are primarily due to P. falciparum, while the principal vector species dwelling in this region is Anopheles albimanus. The biggest malaria epidemic in this region occurred in the year 1984, during which around 55,000 cases of malaria were registered. Infections primarily surface during the monsoon season. Interestingly, none of the parasite strains have demonstrated resistance to chloroquine, while resistance to pyrimethamine was observed in certain strains.
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