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Malaria morbidity and mortality in Ebola-affected countries caused by decreased health-care capacity, and the potential effect of mitigation strategies: a modelling analysis

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LANCET by Patrick G. T. Walker and others                               Volume 15, No. 7, p825–832, July 2015
The ongoing Ebola epidemic in parts of west Africa largely overwhelmed health-care systems in 2014, making adequate care for malaria impossible and threatening the gains in malaria control achieved over the past decade. We quantified this additional indirect burden of Ebola virus disease.

We estimated the number of cases and deaths from malaria in Guinea, Liberia, and Sierra Leone from Demographic and Health Surveys data for malaria prevalence and coverage of malaria interventions before the Ebola outbreak. We then removed the effect of treatment and hospital care to estimate additional cases and deaths from malaria caused by reduced health-care capacity and potential disruption of delivery of insecticide-treated bednets. We modelled the potential effect of emergency mass drug administration in affected areas on malaria cases and health-care demand....

The.. findings suggest that untreated malaria cases as a result of reduced health-care capacity probably contributed substantially to the morbidity caused by the Ebola crisis. Mass drug administration can be an effective means to mitigate this burden and reduce the number of non-Ebola fever cases within health systems....
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http://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099%2815%2970124-6/fulltext?rss=yes

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myscience.org.uk - April 24, 2015

As many as 10,900 extra malaria deaths may have occurred in 2014 due to the disruption of healthcare services in countries hit by Ebola.

The figure, based on new modelling research from Imperial College London published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, estimates the number of deaths that would have been prevented by health systems functioning normally in Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia.

A further 3,900 deaths may have resulted from disruption to the delivery of insecticide-treated mosquito nets.

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