Angola

The M and S molecular forms of the African malaria vector Anopheles gambiae (Diptera: Culicidae) are morphologically identical incipient species in which reproductive isolation is incomplete, enabling low-level gene flow between forms.

Pregnant women are at increased risk of malaria, but in Angola, epidemiologic data from this group is almost inexistent.

This study documents an important prevalence of 4 P. falciparum polymorphisms that predicts an antifolate resistance in Luanda.

In this study we demonstrated that P. vivax infections were found both in humans and mosquitoes, which means that active transmission is occurring.

The data showed that the implementation IPT using SP in children needs to be reviewed.

The high prevalence of the pfcrt SVMNT haplotype and the pfmdr1 86Y mutation confirm high-level chloroquine resistance and might suggest reduced efficacy of amodiaquine in Angola. Further studies must be encouraged to examine the in vitro sensitivity of pfcrt SVMNT parasites to artesunate and amodiaquine for better conclusive data.

These results represent the first report on CM genetic risk factors in Angolan children and suggest the novel hypothesis that genetic variants of the TGFB2 and HMOX1 genes may contribute to confer a specific risk of developing the CM syndrome in patients with severe P. falciparum malaria.

The 2006–2007 Angola Malaria Indicator Survey (AMIS) is the first nationally representative household survey in the country assessing coverage of the key malaria control interventions and measuring malaria-related burden among children under 5 years of age.

Unfortunately malaria transmission in Africa is often assessed using routine administrative reports from local health units, which are plagued by sporadic reporting failures. It is unfortunate that WHO is also trying to plan and evaluate its malaria control efforts based on these same kinds of inadequate administrative reports.

As problems identified in this survey are not unique to Angola, better strategies for improving Health Workers performance are urgently needed.