Epidemiology of malaria in the Amazon basin of Ecuador
Malaria is reemerging in most endemic countries of South America. In Ecuador, malaria is endemic on the Pacific coast, in the inter-Andean valleys, and in the Amazon River basin. In the Lower-Napo region of northeastern Ecuador, malaria was considered eliminated in the 1970s, but the disease has ree...
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2000
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ftdoajarticles:oai:doaj.org/article:4bf8845214454c13be55e0c54d20b7b0 2023-05-15T15:18:39+02:00 Epidemiology of malaria in the Amazon basin of Ecuador Miguel San Sebastián Ricardo Játiva Isabel Goicolea 2000-01-01T00:00:00Z https://doi.org/10.1590/s1020-49892000000100004 https://doaj.org/article/4bf8845214454c13be55e0c54d20b7b0 EN ES PT eng spa por Pan American Health Organization http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1020-49892000000100004&lng=en&tlng=en https://doaj.org/toc/1020-4989 1020-4989 doi:10.1590/s1020-49892000000100004 https://doaj.org/article/4bf8845214454c13be55e0c54d20b7b0 Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 24-28 (2000) Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 article 2000 ftdoajarticles https://doi.org/10.1590/s1020-49892000000100004 2022-12-31T13:33:46Z Malaria is reemerging in most endemic countries of South America. In Ecuador, malaria is endemic on the Pacific coast, in the inter-Andean valleys, and in the Amazon River basin. In the Lower-Napo region of northeastern Ecuador, malaria was considered eliminated in the 1970s, but the disease has reemerged in recent years. Three organizations are involved in malaria related work in the area, but they are not coordinating their efforts. This study was designed to describe the epidemiology of malaria incidence in the Lower-Napo region for the period of January 1992 through December 1995, and to determine the extent of seasonality in transmission in the area. To determine malaria incidence, data were collected for that 4-year period from the records of the three malaria-related organizations: the office of the National Center for Malaria Eradication (NCME) in the town of Coca, the district hospital in Nuevo Rocafuerte (DHNR), and an association of community health workers called Sandi Yura. Data on climatic conditions for the same period were collected from the Ecuadorian Air Force and civil aviation authorities. During the 1992-1995 period, NCME diagnosed a total of 773 malaria cases, DHNR diagnosed 485, and Sandi Yura clinically diagnosed 859. For the 4-year period, an annual parasite index of 40.4 was found with the DHNR data, 35.8 with the Sandi Yura data, and 6.2 with the NCME data. The predominant parasite in the area was Plasmodium vivax (92% of all the cases). Twenty-eight percent of the infected persons were under 10 years old. No discernible differences between the genders were found. There was also no seasonal variation among the cases. Further research is needed in order to confirm these findings and better understand malaria transmission in the region. The study highlights the need for a closer coordination among the area's malaria-control organizations so as to have an improved understanding of malaria epidemiology and to design and implement effective control strategies. Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles Arctic Pacific Yura ENVELOPE(41.812,41.812,64.328,64.328) Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública 7 1 24 28 |
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Open Polar |
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Directory of Open Access Journals: DOAJ Articles |
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ftdoajarticles |
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English Spanish Portuguese |
topic |
Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
spellingShingle |
Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 Miguel San Sebastián Ricardo Játiva Isabel Goicolea Epidemiology of malaria in the Amazon basin of Ecuador |
topic_facet |
Medicine R Arctic medicine. Tropical medicine RC955-962 Public aspects of medicine RA1-1270 |
description |
Malaria is reemerging in most endemic countries of South America. In Ecuador, malaria is endemic on the Pacific coast, in the inter-Andean valleys, and in the Amazon River basin. In the Lower-Napo region of northeastern Ecuador, malaria was considered eliminated in the 1970s, but the disease has reemerged in recent years. Three organizations are involved in malaria related work in the area, but they are not coordinating their efforts. This study was designed to describe the epidemiology of malaria incidence in the Lower-Napo region for the period of January 1992 through December 1995, and to determine the extent of seasonality in transmission in the area. To determine malaria incidence, data were collected for that 4-year period from the records of the three malaria-related organizations: the office of the National Center for Malaria Eradication (NCME) in the town of Coca, the district hospital in Nuevo Rocafuerte (DHNR), and an association of community health workers called Sandi Yura. Data on climatic conditions for the same period were collected from the Ecuadorian Air Force and civil aviation authorities. During the 1992-1995 period, NCME diagnosed a total of 773 malaria cases, DHNR diagnosed 485, and Sandi Yura clinically diagnosed 859. For the 4-year period, an annual parasite index of 40.4 was found with the DHNR data, 35.8 with the Sandi Yura data, and 6.2 with the NCME data. The predominant parasite in the area was Plasmodium vivax (92% of all the cases). Twenty-eight percent of the infected persons were under 10 years old. No discernible differences between the genders were found. There was also no seasonal variation among the cases. Further research is needed in order to confirm these findings and better understand malaria transmission in the region. The study highlights the need for a closer coordination among the area's malaria-control organizations so as to have an improved understanding of malaria epidemiology and to design and implement effective control strategies. |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
author |
Miguel San Sebastián Ricardo Játiva Isabel Goicolea |
author_facet |
Miguel San Sebastián Ricardo Játiva Isabel Goicolea |
author_sort |
Miguel San Sebastián |
title |
Epidemiology of malaria in the Amazon basin of Ecuador |
title_short |
Epidemiology of malaria in the Amazon basin of Ecuador |
title_full |
Epidemiology of malaria in the Amazon basin of Ecuador |
title_fullStr |
Epidemiology of malaria in the Amazon basin of Ecuador |
title_full_unstemmed |
Epidemiology of malaria in the Amazon basin of Ecuador |
title_sort |
epidemiology of malaria in the amazon basin of ecuador |
publisher |
Pan American Health Organization |
publishDate |
2000 |
url |
https://doi.org/10.1590/s1020-49892000000100004 https://doaj.org/article/4bf8845214454c13be55e0c54d20b7b0 |
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ENVELOPE(41.812,41.812,64.328,64.328) |
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Arctic Pacific Yura |
geographic_facet |
Arctic Pacific Yura |
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Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_source |
Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública, Vol 7, Iss 1, Pp 24-28 (2000) |
op_relation |
http://www.scielosp.org/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1020-49892000000100004&lng=en&tlng=en https://doaj.org/toc/1020-4989 1020-4989 doi:10.1590/s1020-49892000000100004 https://doaj.org/article/4bf8845214454c13be55e0c54d20b7b0 |
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https://doi.org/10.1590/s1020-49892000000100004 |
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Revista Panamericana de Salud Pública |
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