SSMJ December 2020
Editorials
The Ministry of Health of the Republic of South Sudan has just approved an ambitious 5-year National Malaria Strategic Plan 2020-2025 to control and prevent malaria, the third since South Sudan became an independent country in 2011. The launching ceremony on the 11th December 2020 was attended by senior officials of the Ministry of Health, the World Health Organization, UNICEF and malaria implementing partners.
News, Reports and Policy
Letter to the Editor: Training in malaria microscopy and South Sudan’s first malaria slide bank
CDC Algorithm for the management of malaria
Clinical Guidance
The whole of South Sudan is endemic for malaria, with high transmission in the country throughout the year. Malaria accounts for about 66.8% of all health facility visits in the outpatient departments 30% of all hospital admissions and 50% of all cause of deaths in the hospitals. Malaria is the leading cause of illness and death in children under five years. Malaria transmission is all year-round, peaking at the end of the annual rainy season from June to November. Transmission is higher in the southern parts of the country compared with the northern parts.
PubMed was searched using the MeSH terms of malaria or prevalence or diagnosis or medication or prevention or strategies or policies or South Sudan or chemoprophylaxis or immunity or humans. Filters were on humans, free full text, in English, up to five years old, clinical studies and trials, journals, multicentre studies, observational studies. The MeSH terms were also used as keywords to search the South Sudan Medical Journal.
Globally, malaria is the most widely spread infectious disease, with 228 million cases and an estimated 405,000 deaths in 2018. Unfortunately, the African region carries a disproportionately high share of the malaria burden. For instance, in 2018, almost 93% of malaria cases and 94% of deaths were from the African region. Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for 99.7% of malaria cases in Africa making this region the most affected in the world.
Research
Many studies of IPTp uptake have not reported on the impact of Community IPTp (C-IPTp) administration to increase adherence by pregnant women, although some have reported a higher percentage of ANC attendance as a means to increase IPTp uptake. The objective of this study was to assess the impact of C-IPTp in increasing IPTp3+ coverage compared to using routine ANC visits to increase coverage of IPTp.
According to the World Malaria Report of 2019, there were 228 million cases of malaria globally. The estimated number of malaria deaths were 405,000 in the same year. The World Health Organization (WHO) report showed that Africa carries a high proportion of the global malaria burden. Overall, there were 93% of malaria cases and 94% of malaria deaths in Africa.[3] In the same year, children aged under five years were the most affected accounting for 67% of all malaria deaths globally. Therefore, reducing the malaria burden would contribute to progress towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Poor adherence to standard malaria diagnosis and treatment guidelines has resulted to the spread of antimalarial drug resistance. This exposes more pregnant women to malaria, which increases the risk of poor health outcomes for mothers and infants. Placental parasitaemia can cause maternal anaemia and low birth weight, both of which are risk factors for neonatal mortality. In areas of Africa where malaria is endemic, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends three approaches to malaria prevention and control: - uptake of Intermittent Preventive treatment in Pregnancy (IPTp), - sleeping under an insecticide-treated bed net (ITN), - effective clinical diagnosis and treatment of malaria.
Case Reports
COVID-19 is a viral disease that infects the respiratory system, and usually, a patient suffers from high fever, fatigue, headache, cough, and shortness of breath.[1] This pandemic carries a staggering burden in terms of expenditure on detection, prevention, and treatment, in addition to the loss of life and collapse of the health systems. However, many reports have recorded unusual clinical features such as diarrhoea, abdominal pain, testicular pain, and stroke-like symptoms.
Summaries
This is a summary of an original public health research thesis that was submitted in 2019 to the Department of Pathogen Biology, School of Public Health, Southern Medical University, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province PR-China.
When discussing the challenges surrounding malaria in South Sudan the focus tends to be on the availability of medical supplies, health care infrastructure, and social stigma. However, one important aspect that is sometimes overlooked is the role of laboratory science and diagnostics in both the control and prevention of malaria.