Kuwait celebrates the World Malaria Day today, which falls on April 25 annually, which was celebrated for the first time in 2008 in Africa, to assess and raise awareness of the global efforts to control and combat this disease and reduce the death rate in African countries in particular.
The Kuwaiti health sources reassured that malaria is a disease “imported” from abroad and is not endemic in Kuwait, since the country is not known as an incubating environment and the country is free of any infections with it, reports Al-Qabas daily.
The sources added that in recent years, a few cases of the disease coming from abroad, from African or East Asian countries, were monitored and treated, noting that the disease is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, transmitted by mosquitoes and infiltrates into red blood cells in the human body and destroys them indicating that these mosquitoes do not exist in the country, just as malaria is not contagious, and when a person coming from abroad is infected with it, it does not infect others except in certain cases.
For example, an infected mother transmits malaria to the fetus, or through blood transfusions from an infected person, or sharing needles with an infected person.
The sources said if an expatriate is diagnosed with the disease upon his arrival in the country is subjected to treatment protocols in order to recover from it.
The sources indicated that the Ministry of Health requires expatriate workers in countries affected by the disease to be examined before they are brought to Kuwait, to ensure that they are not infected, and the examination is repeated once they enter the country to ensure that they are free from malaria, and called on travelers to countries where malaria is widespread of the need to visit the travel clinic of the Ports and Borders Health Department in the Al-Sabah health area, two weeks before the date of their travel, to take the necessary vaccinations for various diseases, including malaria.
The sources stated that the causes of infection are not available in Kuwait, such as the continuous torrential rain waters, swamps for long periods, similar to what happens in the tropics and subtropics.
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