Overview of malaria situation in Sudan

Abstract

Background: Malaria the world’s most prevalent vector borne disease, is endemic in 92 countries worldwide, remains a major public health threat to more than 600 million Africans. Approximately 41% of the world’s population is at risk, and each year 300 million to 500 million clinical cases of malaria, >90% of them in Africa, are reported. The objective of the study was to present an overview of the malaria situation in Sudan, to assess the trend of malaria infection amongst the local population of Sudan during the period 1990 to 2008, to assess the trend of proportion of all consultations and mortality attributable to malaria amongst the local population of Sudan during the period 2000 to 2008.Methods: The study design was a retrospective cohort study design. Data from all sources was validated, compiled and analysed statistically using standard statistical tests.Results: Overall malaria incidence shows a significantly decreasing trend during the period of study. Disease burden due to malaria as proportion of all consultations also shows a significantly decreasing trend during the period of study. Mortality attributable to malaria also shows a significantly decreasing trend.   Conclusions: The epidemiology of malaria infection and disease risks are in transition is some parts of Africa, in part as a result of scaling of the provision of insecticide treated nets and adoption of new effective therapeutics.