Four species of mosquitoes that can transmit malaria discovered in Odesa region

Employees of the Department of Epidemiological Surveillance and Prevention of Infectious Diseases of the Bilhorod-Dnistrovskyi District Department of the Odesa Regional Center for Disease Control and Prevention have identified four species of mosquitoes of the Anopheles family that can transmit malaria.

This was reported by the Center's press service, noting that this defines the situation with the infection in the district as tense.

"The climatic conditions of our region are changing every year in the spring and summer, it is getting hotter, as well as the presence of fresh water bodies, the total area of which is 19.6% of the total area of the district," the Center emphasized.

According to the World Health Organization , malaria ranks first on the planet among infectious diseases. Every year, more than 200 million new cases of malaria are registered worldwide, of which 1.5 million to 3 million people die from the disease.

However, in Ukraine, no cases of local transmission of malaria have been registered since 1959, but there are imported cases, not only by sailors, as it used to be, but also by commercial workers, contract specialists, ship and airplane crew members, seasonal workers, and tourists.

In Ukraine, malaria is not transmitted by mosquitoes, and currently all reported cases of infection are imported.

In 2021, five Ukrainian citizens were diagnosed with imported malaria, two of them in Odesa region. One of the cases was fatal. All the patients were employees of ships sailing to African countries. A 31-year-old man from Odesa region died of malaria. For the past six months, he had been working as a cook aboard a ship that was sailing to African countries (Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Congo).

Кирило Бойко