{"id":214422,"date":"2022-01-24T15:58:05","date_gmt":"2022-01-24T13:58:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/nicd-urges-people-with-unexplained-fever-to-get-tested-for-malaria\/"},"modified":"2022-01-24T15:58:05","modified_gmt":"2022-01-24T13:58:05","slug":"nicd-urges-people-with-unexplained-fever-to-get-tested-for-malaria","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/nicd-urges-people-with-unexplained-fever-to-get-tested-for-malaria\/","title":{"rendered":"NICD urges people with ‘unexplained’ fever to get tested for malaria"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) is calling on everyone presenting with a fever or a \u201cflu-like\u201d illness residing in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga or people who have travelled to Mozambique in the past six weeks to be tested for malaria.<\/p>\n

According to the NICD, in a statement released on Monday, tests can be done by blood smear microscopy or rapid diagnostic test and patients should be started on malaria treatment immediately if they test positive. <\/p>\n

\u201cDespite South Africa entering its peak malaria season, many malaria cases are being misdiagnosed as COVID-19. Both malaria and COVID-19 have similar non-specific early symptoms including fever, chills, headaches, fatigue and muscle pain.\u201d<\/p>\n

The NICD has cautioned that undiagnosed and untreated malaria rapidly progresses to severe illness, with a potentially fatal outcome.<\/p>\n

In addition, the institute said patients should always remember to inform their healthcare provider of their recent travel, particularly to neighbouring countries and malaria-risk areas locally.   <\/p>\n

Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga are considered South Africa\u2019s malaria-risk areas, while Mozambique is among the 10 nations with the highest burden of the fatal disease worldwide.<\/p>\n

\u201cOdyssean or \u2018taxi malaria’, transmitted by hitch-hiking mosquitoes, should be considered in a patient with unexplained fever who has not travelled to a malaria-endemic area, but is getting progressively sicker, with a low platelet count,\u201d the NICD explained.<\/p>\n

According to the NICD, malaria is a potentially life-threatening disease caused by blood parasites of the genus Plasmodium, which are transmitted through the bites of infected mosquitoes.<\/p>\n

In the human body, the parasites first multiply in the liver and then infect the red blood cells.<\/p>\n

Globally, malaria is one of the six major causes of death from communicable diseases, of which 90% of the world\u2019s approximately 440 000 annual malaria fatalities occur in Africa.<\/p>\n

According to the NICD\u2019s data, from 2015 to 2019, South Africa had between 10 000 and 30 000 notified cases of malaria per year.<\/p>\n

The Elimination Eight Initiative (E8) is a coalition of eight Southern African countries working across national borders to eliminate malaria by 2030.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, South Africa is one of four front-line E8 countries earmarked to eradicate malaria by 2025.<\/p>\n

While South Africa has made significant progress towards eliminating malaria, the NICD said the country still needs to do more.<\/p>\n

\u201cAccess to malaria services needs to be expanded to ensure that all malaria carriers are detected and treated to prevent the seeding of secondary transmission.\u201d \u2013 SAnews.gov.za<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) is calling on everyone presenting with a fever or a \u201cflu-like\u201d illness residing in Limpopo, KwaZulu-Natal and Mpumalanga or people who have travelled to Mozambique in the past six weeks to be tested for malaria. According to the NICD, in a statement released on Monday, tests can be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":214423,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[38678],"class_list":{"0":"post-214422","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-sanews","9":"entry"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/01\/nicd-urges-people-with-unexplained-fever-to-get-tested-for-malaria.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=214422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/214422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/214423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=214422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=214422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.myza.co.za\/press\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=214422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}