Tanzania on high alert for new malaria threat

Dar es Salaam. Health institutions said yesterday that the country was watching closely to determine if the new mosquitoes carrying the deadly malaria had entered Tanzania.

Anopheles stephensi mosquitoes have been found in Laisamis and Saku sub-counties in northern Kenya, posing a serious public health concern in the neighboring country and East African Community member states ( EAC), including Tanzania.

A mosquito transmitting the malaria parasite is native to South Asia and the Middle East and it spreads two different malaria parasites which strongly cause illness and subsequently death.

Contrary to the usual trend for the season, reports from hospitals in Kenya’s malaria-infected areas indicate that there is an increase in the number of malaria patients.

“Malaria is a major public health problem in Kenya. The disease has spread to different parts of the country, with around 70% of the population remaining at risk,” read a statement from the Kenya Institute of Medical Research (Kemri).

However, Tanzanian health institutions told The Citizen yesterday that they are closely monitoring the mosquito and that special research aimed at addressing this public health concern has been launched.

Senior researcher from the Tanzania National Institute of Medical Research (NIMR), Dr William Kisinza, said the government was aware of the existence of the newly discovered mosquito in Kenya.

However, he said they have yet to establish whether or not the parasite has crossed borders into Tanzania, noting that they have already started tracking it.

“Tanzania is not an island and the mosquito has a high probability of entering the country. Due to its special characteristics, the parasite may have entered the country without our knowledge,” said the expert from Amani Center in Muheza district, Tanga region.

He said the mosquito has a high reproductive and transmission capacity compared to other mosquitoes. In addition, he warned that a person who has contracted malaria and seeks treatment could suddenly become ill even without being bitten by the mosquito, as the parasites could remain in the patient’s liver for some time.

“The mosquito is resisting anti-malaria sprays, thus increasing anxiety around the world. Its emergence is a setback for the achievements in anti-malaria control recorded so far in the world,” he said.

“The global community is supposed to fully prepare; countries that have identified the mosquito should strengthen control measures,” he added.

According to him, the Ministry of Health, in collaboration with Nimr, has strengthened mosquito surveillance as well as public education.

Describing the mosquito, the head of the Department of Environmental Health Sciences and Ecology of the Ifakara Health Institute (IHI), Dr. Emmanuel Kaindoa, said that although it belongs to the genus Anopheles, the mosquito is unfamiliar on the mainland.

He said the mosquito was first seen in 2012 in Djibouti and later in Somalia, Ethiopia and Eritrea before being discovered in Sudan in 2019.

Dr Kaindoa said mosquitoes breed more in urban areas than in rural areas, noting that they mostly share the same characteristics as dengue-transmitting mosquitoes.

He said the mosquito can retain malaria parasites for up to 10 days before they start transmitting the organisms.

“It can carry two different types of parasites that cause malaria, which leads to difficulties during treatment. They are very dangerous because the disease caused by mosquito transmission tends to hide and emerge suddenly,” he said.

“The mosquito also has the particularity of feeding on human beings and other organisms. Research from Egypt and Djibouti shows that it has a high capacity for disease transmission,” he added.

According to him, the mosquito sucks blood from a human being and uses it to lay eggs for the next three days before seeking blood from another human on the fourth day.

In the process, another person would become infected and live for 30 days before they die, with the expert saying the mosquito’s life cycle continues until they die.

The Acting Director of the Tanzania National Malaria Control Program (TNMCP) at the Ministry of Health, Dr Samwel Lazaro, said its bizarre characteristics compelled the government to start researching the mosquito.

“The new mosquito that has been discovered in Kenya is resistant to drugs used to fight malaria; therefore, the government readjusted after meeting with experts responsible for mosquito control and defining its control strategies,” he said.

“We have improved mosquito surveillance systems that will allow us to collect mosquitoes in cities and rural areas to find out if the new mosquito is present in the country,” he said.

For his part, Zanzibar’s Minister of Health, Mr. Nassor Ahmed Mazrui, said the new type of mosquito had not entered the Spice Islands.

“All malaria sufferers in the Zanzibar Archipelago are being treated for full recovery. We have started spraying the pesticides in different breeding sites to prevent any possibility of the mosquito entering and finding refuge in the country,” a- he said on the phone.