Zimbabwe, which is already facing the coronavirus pandemic, is facing another health headache with an increase of nearly 50% in malaria cases compared to last year, according to official sources.
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The increase in the number of malaria cases suggests that those with coronaviruses may go unnoticed since some of the symptoms are similar. Zimbabwe, where the population has been confined since late March, has officially registered 29 confirmed cases of Covid-19 so far, including four deaths. In tandem with this pandemic, the government has announced a 45% increase in the number of malaria cases, compared to the same period in 2019, while the number of deaths has increased by 20%.
"This year, the number of malaria cases in the country is 170,303 and the number of deaths is 152, compared to 117,715 and 127 in 2019 respectively during the same period," the health ministry said on Twitter this week. "We are starting to see an increase in the number of cases (of malaria) , " Norman Matara of the Zimbabwe Association of Physicians for Human Rights (ZADHR) confirmed to AFP on Friday. “Unfortunately, this is happening at a time when we are dealing with another health crisis, the Covid-19 pandemic. It is possible to confuse the two diseases because some of the symptoms tend to be similar, " he warned.
The only solution would be to carry out Covid-19 tests, which Zimbabwe, plunged into a deep economic crisis for two decades, is sorely lacking. "It is likely that malaria patients will stay at home instead of going for treatment" at the hospital for fear of contracting the coronavirus, said Norman Matara. On Thursday, the World Health Organization (WHO) warned that the Covid-19 pandemic could disrupt the distribution of mosquito nets and anti-malaria drugs and double the number of deaths in 2020 compared to 2018.
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Sub-Saharan Africa accounted for around 93% of all malaria cases worldwide and 94% of deaths in 2018. The number of coronavirus cases in Africa is currently low compared to the rest of the planet: nearly 28,000 on the continent against more than 2.7 million worldwide, according to an AFP count. But experts warn of the risk that African countries, with failing public health services, will quickly be overwhelmed by the pandemic as the number of cases increases.
