A study carried out by researchers at the University of São Paulo (USP) on the incidence of malaria among Brazilian pregnant women and published in the Lancet Regional Health – Americas journal, indicates that there was a reduction of approximately half of the cases between 2004 and 2018. reduction, municipalities in Acre are among the cities with a high incidence of gestational malaria.
According to the researchers, the drop in rates is due to the expansion of the diagnosis and treatment network, as well as the inclusion, as of 2006, of the drug artemisinin in the therapeutic regimen. Also according to the authors, the reduction was not greater, possibly because of the decentralization of public actions to combat the disease in Brazil.
“Although there are several studies published on gestational malaria in the country, none of them presented an overview of the disease, as they were mostly carried out in specific places or regions”, says Cláudio Romero Farias Marinho, professor at the Laboratory of Experimental Immunoparasitology at the Institute of Sciences Biomédicas da USP, who coordinated the work, told CNN Brasil.
The group of researchers analyzed the disease for 15 years, using data from 61,833 women with gestational malaria in Brazil, obtained from the Malaria Epidemiological Surveillance System (Sivep-Malaria), of the Ministry of Health. According to the results, in addition to municipalities in Acre, cities in Amazonas, Rondônia and Pará also had a high incidence of the disease in pregnant women.
Disease in pregnant women
Pregnant women are part of one of the main risk groups for the disease, which is caused by protozoa of the genus Plasmodium and transmitted by the Anopheles mosquito. Infected pregnant women are more at risk for severe anemia, premature birth, miscarriage, and stillbirth, and the fetus may experience microcephaly or impaired growth in the uterus.
In addition, the study reveals indications that the treatment regimen for these patients may not be being done correctly, as a high percentage of a drug that is contraindicated during pregnancy was noticed, which can cause the destruction of red blood cells in the fetus. and can cause a miscarriage. With the information it is possible to guide the Ministry of Health with public policies to control the disease.