Department of Epidemiology and Medical Statistics, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Epidemiology and Biostatistics Research Unit, Institute for Advanced Medical Research and Training, College of Medicine, University of Ibadan, Ibadan, Nigeria.
Pan Afr Med J. 2020 Sep 1;37(Suppl 1):1. doi: 10.11604/pamj.supp.2020.37.1.25738. eCollection 2020.
The devastating impact of infectious disease outbreaks and pandemics on health systems could be overwhelming especially when there is an overlap in clinical presentations with other disease conditions. A case in point is the disruptive effect of the Ebola Virus Disease outbreak on health service delivery and its consequences for malaria management in the affected West and Central African countries between 2014 and 2016. This could be the case with the current infectious disease pandemic (COVID-19) the world is experiencing as malaria illness shares many symptoms with COVID-19 illness. Caused by a novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), COVID-19 is reported to have originated from Wuhan city, China in December 2019. COVID-19 was declared a Public Health Emergency of International Concern on 30 January 2020 and declared a pandemic on March 11, 2020 by the World Health Organization (WHO). Practically, all community infrastructure has been activated in affected countries in response to COVID-19. However, the deployment of huge resources in combating COVID-19 pandemic should not be a missed opportunity for the advancement of infectious diseases control including malaria. This calls for conscious and heightened effort to sustain the gains in malaria control. The WHO has emphasized that the response to the COVID-19 pandemic must utilize and strengthen existing infrastructure for addressing malaria and other infectious diseases globally. Leveraging these to maintain malaria control activities in endemic countries could boost and help to sustain the gains in malaria control in accordance with the 2016-2030 Global technical strategy for malaria (GTS) milestones. In addition, it will help to keep the "High burden to high impact" (HBHI) and other initiatives on track. This article highlights the commonalities of the two diseases, discusses implications and recommendations to support decision making strategies to keep malaria control on track in the COVID-19 pandemic era.
传染病暴发和大流行对卫生系统的破坏性影响可能是巨大的，尤其是当临床症状与其他疾病重叠时。一个典型的例子是，2014 年至 2016 年期间，埃博拉病毒病的爆发对卫生服务的提供产生了破坏性影响，并对受影响的西非和中非国家的疟疾管理产生了后果。目前世界上正在经历的传染病大流行（COVID-19）就是这种情况，因为 COVID-19 疾病与疟疾疾病有许多共同症状。COVID-19 由一种新型冠状病毒——严重急性呼吸系统综合征冠状病毒 2（SARS-CoV-2）引起，据报道，它于 2019 年 12 月起源于中国武汉市。2020 年 1 月 30 日，世界卫生组织宣布 COVID-19 为国际关注的突发公共卫生事件，2020 年 3 月 11 日宣布 COVID-19 为大流行。实际上，受影响的国家已经启动了几乎所有的社区基础设施来应对 COVID-19。然而，在抗击 COVID-19 大流行中部署大量资源不应成为推进包括疟疾在内的传染病控制的错失良机。这需要有意识地、加强努力来维持疟疾控制的成果。世界卫生组织强调，应对 COVID-19 大流行必须利用和加强全球解决疟疾和其他传染病的现有基础设施。利用这些基础设施在流行国家维持疟疾控制活动，可以根据 2016-2030 年全球疟疾技术战略（GTS）里程碑来促进和帮助维持疟疾控制的成果。此外，这将有助于使“高负担高影响”（HBHI）和其他倡议保持在正轨上。本文强调了这两种疾病的共同之处，讨论了在 COVID-19 大流行时代支持决策策略以保持疟疾控制的影响和建议。
