Following the Ebola outbreak, Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone all pulled the plug on malaria control efforts

Oct 2, 2014 07:44 GMT  ·  By
Specialists fear West Africa's ongoing Ebola outbreak will fuel a malaria epidemic
   Specialists fear West Africa's ongoing Ebola outbreak will fuel a malaria epidemic

In what might be today's freakiest piece of news, specialists warn that the ongoing Ebola outbreak in West Africa has high chances to fuel a malaria epidemic.

Otherwise put, it is possible that, the more people in this part of the world are infected with the deadly Ebola virus, the more victims the mosquito-borne illness will make.

Thus, specialists say that, under a business-as-usual scenario, the number of people struck by malaria stands to start rising sooner than one might expect. In fact, there are some experts who believe this rise in malaria cases has already happened, but has gone undocumented.

What does one epidemic have to do with the other?

Experts keeping tabs on the Ebola outbreak in West Africa say that, following the debut of this epidemic and its starting to spiral out of control, Liberia, Guinea, and Sierra Leone all pulled the plug on malaria control efforts.

“Nobody is doing a thing,” specialist Thomas Teuscher with the Roll Back Malaria Partnership commented on the situation in these three countries in a recent interview with the press, as cited by Nature.

Thus, it appears that, because of the ongoing Ebola epidemic, malaria drugs are kept in government owned and operated warehouses, rather than being distributed to people.

Things are at their worst in Liberia and Guinea, where medical supply trucks cannot go about business as usual for fear that they will be attacked by people who aren't in the least happy with how health officials are handling the Ebola outbreak.

Besides, word has it that, because of all the commotion birthed by the deadly Ebola virus, Liberia might cancel its plans to distribute bed nets intended to protect people by mosquitoes carrying malaria.

Specialists say that, more often than not, malaria is very much treatable. However, the Ebola outbreak means that people are refusing to visit health clinics for fear that they might be infected by the deadly virus. Hence, malaria too could spiral out of control.

What's more, it appears that some health workers are refusing to test people's blood for malaria because this disease and Ebola have some symptoms in common, and as long as they do not know exactly what they are dealing with, they fear that they might contract the virus.

Specialists say that, since 2000 until present day, the number of documented malaria cases in West Africa has fallen by about 30%. The problem is that, unless affected countries get their malaria control programs back on track, this disease could soon make a comeback.

“It’s a disaster in all ways possible,” said Estrella Lasry, a tropical-medicine specialist for medical charity Médecins Sans Frontières. “The public-health impact will be huge,” the specialist went on to stress.

What's there to do?

Specialists say that affected countries must do their best and get back to fighting malaria as soon as possible. They go on to argue that there are plenty of health workers in West Africa who know how to deal with both malaria and Ebola and that high officials need only make it possible for these people to do their job.

As Thomas Teuscher put it, “Potentially, we have an army of people available in these countries who have experience delivering malaria treatments. They’re still there; they just need to be helped to do a good job.”