The epidemic Ebola fever, which has killed more than 11,000 people since last year in West Africa, killed 2,400 people in Guinea and hit healthcare workers hard, leading to the closure of some healthcare centers, while d Others were deserted by other patients for fear of contamination.
This is how the number of untreated malaria cases exploded in Guinea, up to 69%. This may have caused an excess of deaths far greater than those from Ebola, according to a study published in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases.
According to Dr Franco Pagnoni of the WHO Global Malaria Programme, these malaria cases untreated have placed an additional burden on an already overstretched health system in Ebola-affected countries.
Malaria (or paludism) remains a scourge in Africa. This deadly disease transmitted by mosquitoes infected with the parasite (of the genus Plasmodium) killed 584,000 people according to the latest estimates from the World Health Organization dating from December 2014. The African continent alone accounts for 90% of infected cases. . Children under 5 are the first victims.
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