BUJUMBURA,
Burundi (AP) - A severe malaria outbreak in the past month has
killed 818 people, including at least 100 children, a medical
official said Monday.
The epidemic
broke out in the Mwaro province of the tiny central African nation,
said Dr. Tharcisse Barihuta, director of the National Program
for Communicable Diseases. The provinces of Gitega and Cibitoke
were also hit hard, he said.
Most of victims
died "either by refusing to treat the disease and turning
to traditional medicine or because they lacked money to go to
a doctor," said Health Minister Stanislas Ntahomvukiye.
Malaria is
transmitted by the bite of the Anopheles mosquito, which carries
the Plasmodium parasite. There is no vaccine to prevent malaria,
but it can be suppressed by taking daily or weekly doses of antimalarial
medicines, which are also used in larger doses to treat the illness.
Most Africans cannot afford these medicines.
Mosquito nets
treated with insecticide are promoted as the best defense against
the malaria-bearing mosquitoes, but most people in Africa do not
have these.
The National
Program for Communicable Diseases estimates that one of every
two Burundians will be infected with malaria this year in the
country of 6.5 million. The World Health Organization says that
Malaria kills an estimated 1 million around the world, but the
majority of victims are young children in Africa.
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