MINISTER of Health, Dr. Frank Anthony, said that more people have access to malaria treatment in some of the most affected regions.

During his daily COVID-19 update on Friday last, the Health Minister listed Regions One, Seven, Eight and Nine as the regions with the most malaria cases, noting that healthcare workers have been working hard to make diagnoses and provide treatment.

Dr Anthony posited that healthcare workers were trained to diagnose people with this infection.

“So, we have done that in these regions and those healthcare workers have been working very hard to make those diagnoses. We have more people trained, they have manuals that they go through these things with and they report obviously to us.”

Dr Anthony explained that because the country has been tackling malaria for quite some time, authorities from time to time have to evaluate whether the treatments are effective.

According to the minister, “In other parts of the world if you continue using the same treatments, these parasites can become resistant to the medicines that you are giving and we have been working very closely with Harvard University to look at whether or not the parasites here have developed any sort of resistance to the medications that we are using.”

While a number of initiatives are ongoing to deal with the malaria issue in the country, Dr Anthony added that the Ministry of Health has also partnered with Johns Hopkins University to educate people and help them understand the importance of treatment and the signs and symptoms of malaria, while also trying to dispel myths about it.

Malaria is a serious and sometimes fatal disease caused by a parasite that commonly infects a certain type of mosquito which feeds on humans. People who get malaria are typically very sick with high fever, shaking chills, and flu-like illness.