Epidemiology of Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax malaria endemic in northern Afghanistan.

In 2002, the total malaria burden in Afghanistan was estimated to be 3 million cases annually, mainly from Takhar and Kunduz Provinces. Field investigations from 2001 to 2007 revealed a rapid resurgence of Plasmodium falciparum & P. vivax malaria, with annual incidence rates between 0.0026 & 4.39, and between 0.88 & 13.37 episodes/1,000 person years, respectively. Both diseases peaked during 2002, and then declined independently, indicating two differing modes of transmission and epidemiology. Although control campaigns against malaria tropica, transmitted by the freshwater breeder Anopheles superpictus, were successful, malaria tertiana remained endemic and associated with rice-growing areas, transmitted by the anthropophilic, endophilic or exophilic rice-field breeder, A. pulcherrimus and A. hyrcanus. P. vivax polymorph VK 247 prevailed in 90% of infected mosquito pools. Data documented anthropogenically induced increases in rice-field malaria tertiana in the rice-growing areas of northern Afghanistan and the need for further control strategies, including large-scale larval mosquito eradication in rice-growing areas.