opinion

Malaria is an acute febrile infectious disease transmitted by anopheles and its major symptoms are chill, fever and pantalgia.

Serious cases may lose consciousness or have hypoergasia of the liver and kidney. Without timely medical intervention, they may develop complications or die. 

Humans are susceptible to malaria. Especially, those with low immunity like children, pregnant women and the aged are very prone to the disease.

Today, malaria is found in Africa, Southeast Asia, the Eastern Mediterranean, the Western Pacific and Americas. Among them, its case rate is the highest in the African region below the Sahara Desert.

According to data available, 405 000 were killed by it around the world in 2018 and 608 000 in 2022.

The WHO announced that the number of malaria cases was 249 million in 2022, 5 million cases more than that in the previous year, and warned climate change might seriously aggravate malaria transmission.

Therefore, many countries put big efforts to preventing its spread.

In the DPRK, which gives the top priority to the protection of lives and promotion of health of the people, positive activities are conducted to eradicate the disease. 

In the country, people are liable to it between mid-June and early September.

In this period, household doctors conduct medical check-ups in an aggressive manner to spot malaria cases in its early period and treat them in time.

They also intensify hygienic information activities to make residents well aware of common knowledge about malaria and turn out in the efforts to root out the disease.

In particular, they make sure that residents living in the areas highly prone to malaria use mosquito nets treated by insecticide and moxa.

To prevent the breeding of mosquitoes, an all-people movement is conducted to remove pools, keep clean and maintain the surrounding environment on a regular basis.

In order to stamp out malaria, the Korea Fund against TB & Malaria has conducted positive exchange and cooperation activities with such international organizations as the WHO and various other organizations.

Efforts to exterminate malaria will bear good fruit in the near future in our country.