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KMID : 1143420210140171023
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Public Health Weekly Report
2021 Volume.14 No. 17 p.1023 ~ p.1035
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Characteristics of reported malaria cases, 2020
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Kan Hye-Su
Kwon Jeong-Ran
Park Sun-Young
Kim Hyeon-Gyu
Park Sook-Kyung
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Abstract
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Malaria is considered one of the most important acute febrile diseases worldwide. The World Health Organization (WHO)’s
Global Technology Strategy for Malaria(2016-2030) has been developed with the aim of helping countries to reduce the
incidence and mortality of malaria worldwide by more than 90% by 2030. However, many agree that the shift in focus to
identify and treat COVID-19 impacted ongoing efforts to control other infectious diseases, such as malaria. In line with the
WHO’s global efforts to eliminate malaria, Korea established and promoted a Malaria Re-Elimination 5-Year Plan (2019-2023) and implemented various strategies such as patient monitoring, early diagnosis and treatment, and vector management. In 2020, the number of malaria patients in Korea was 385; down 31.1% from 2019 when there were 559 patients. The number of indigenous cases was 356 (92.5%) and 340 (95.5%) of them occurred from May until October. In addition, the number of imported cases was 29 (7.5%) which marked a 60.8% year-on-year reduction, which, this report hypothesized was most likely due to the decrease in overseas travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
By gender and age, at 315 male cases (81.8%), the number of male that had malaria was 4.5 times higher than the number of female, and the most frequent occurrence was among individuals in their 20s (117, 30.4%). By indigenous cases, the
infected areas were Gyeonggi Province 64.6% (230), Incheon 17.4% (62) and Gangwon Province 8.4% (30). The most
common symptoms were fever (96.1%), followed by chills (77.4%), sweats (50.9%), and headaches (46.2%). Of them, 84
cases were soldiers serving or served near the demilitarized zone(DMZ), while 301 cases were civilians. The civilian cases were higher than those of military. In Korea, malaria outbreaks resumed in 1993, and there were about 4,000 patients per year until 2000. The incidence of patients decreased to around 500 in recent 5 years due to continuous efforts to reduce malaria. In 2020, the lowest incidence was reported since the malaria outbreaks resumed in 1993. This may be related to the COVID-19 outbreak situation which reduced overseas travel and the policy direction of COVID-19, such as social distancing. This report recommended continuous organic cooperation and rapid response measures of the KDCA, local governments, and front-line medical institutions.
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KEYWORD
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Malaria, Elimination, Indigenous case, Imported case, Patient management, Vector control
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