The Jakarta Post
Please Update your browser
Your browser is out of date, and may not be compatible with our website. A list of the most popular web browsers can be found below.
Just click on the icons to get to the download page.
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results
Popular Reads
Top Results
No results found. Please check your search term and try again
Can't find what you're looking for?
View all search results[Commentary] Indonesia’s constant battle against malaria amid pandemic
Health Ministry data in April revealed an upward trend of malaria incidences in Indonesia and an increasing number of high malaria endemicity areas.
Change text size
Gift Premium Articles
to Anyone
Share the best of The Jakarta Post with friends, family, or colleagues. As a subscriber, you can gift 3 to 5 articles each month that anyone can read—no subscription needed!
Set as preferred source
T
ransmission of COVID-19 in Indonesia has continued unabated and expanded to malaria-endemic areas, especially the country’s eastern provinces, such as East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), Maluku and Papua, forcing authorities there to step up vigilance to prevent a double burden of disease. Plasmodium – a parasite that causes malaria in humans – can damage the immune system, which is why malaria patients are prone to other infections, including COVID-19.
Health Ministry data in April revealed an upward trend of malaria incidences in Indonesia and an increasing number of high malaria endemicity areas. It will take more time and effort to combat the vector-borne disease because the ongoing coronavirus pandemic has laid a heavy burden on the healthcare system. With all attention and resources centered on COVID-19, the question is: Can Indonesia succeed in achieving its malaria elimination goal by 2030?
There was a significant decrease in malaria cases from 2010 to 2014, according to Annual Parasite Incidence (API) data. But from 2014 to 2019, the control gains seemed to stagnate. Progress toward malaria control targets has stalled in some provinces, such as Papua, where a rise in the number of incidences has been reported.
According to API data, malaria cases are still concentrated in eastern Indonesia, with Papua, West Papua and East Nusa Tenggara being the hotbeds of malaria transmission. An estimated 250,644 malaria cases occurred in Indonesia, 86 percent of them in Papua. Another area with a relatively high malaria endemicity level is North Kalimantan, particularly in North Penajam Paser.
The high malaria endemicity level in some areas is a cause for concern particularly because there is no end in sight for the COVID-19 crisis. Currently, about 4 percent or 23 regencies and cities in Indonesia are still categorized as high-endemicity areas, which means around 1.1 percent or 2.9 million Indonesian people are living in areas with high malaria infection potential.
The Health Ministry’s director of vector borne and zoonotic disease prevention and control, Didik Budijanto, admitted that COVID-19 posed a huge challenge on the malaria control and prevention program. He said this could be the case because many health workers feared they would contract COVID-19 if they carried on with their field work. Similarly, the general public are reluctant to seek out health services for the same reason.
“Malaria can be a comorbid or coinfection from COVID-19. A person will become seriously ill if they suffer from malaria and are simultaneously infected with COVID-19,” Didik told The Jakarta Post in an email interview on Friday.
