Jamaica battles first malaria outbreak in decades
Pastor Dale Morgan
Jamaica battles first malaria outbreak in decades*
POSTED: 1601 GMT (0001 HKT), December 5, 2006
KINGSTON, Jamaica (Reuters) -- Jamaican health authorities are battling
an outbreak of malaria that has infected 15 people in the Kingston area
but has so far not spread to other parts of the Caribbean island.
Jamaica had not previously recorded a case of the mosquito-borne illness
in 50 years, said Dr. Marion Ducasse, the health ministry's senior
medical officer.
The health ministry announced late on Monday that it had confirmed 15
cases of malaria, six of them among children and all of them in the
capital and the neighboring central parish of St. Catherine.
Those affected were hospitalized and health officials said their
condition was not considered life-threatening.
The government boosted its pesticide-spraying and launched a campaign to
clear standing water that could serve as breeding ponds for the
Anopheles mosquito, which carries the parasites that cause malaria.
The disease, marked by high fevers, shaking chills and flu-like illness,
kills more than 1 million people a year worldwide, according to the
World Health Organization. Death can usually be prevented with prompt
treatment.
Malaria is present in 107 countries and affects 10 percent of the
world's population, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa and the Indian
subcontinent, the WHO said.
It was confirmed in Jamaica over the weekend when several residents of
Denham Town, a run-down section of volatile west Kingston, went to the
hospital for treatment.
Malaria was eradicated decades ago throughout the Caribbean islands,
except for Hispaniola, the island shared by the Dominican Republic and
Haiti, but can be reintroduced when infected travelers are bitten by
mosquitoes.