18 06 13 Medecins sans Frontières / Africa: Emergency Response to Malaria Outbreak in Lulingu

An outbreak
of malaria in Lulingu, South Kivu, Democratic
Republic of Congo (DRC), is affecting large numbers of people, prompting an
emergency response by international medical organisation Médecins Sans
Frontières (MSF), whose teams have treated more than 2,500 people since the
start of May.

Local
authorities initially feared they were facing an outbreak of meningitis, after
health facilities in the towns of Lulingu and Tchonka were flooded with
patients suffering high fevers and convulsions. Most were children under the
age of 15. The mortality rates at the hospital were above the threshold of 5
per cent (or one in 20 patients, a figure which does not take into account
those who died at home).

Once the
alarm was raised, the emergency team in South Kivu
immediately sent a six-member medical team to the area, using motorbikes to
negotiate the tracks though the forest. On arrival in the town of Lulingu, the team carried
out tests and established that the patients were suffering from malaria rather
than meningitis, which can have similar symptoms. Malaria is endemic in the
region.

In response
to the scale of the outbreak, MSF has reinforced its emergency team to include
eleven Congolese staff and four international staff. They started working in
Lulingu's General
Reference Hospital,
supporting malaria diagnosis and treatment in the paediatric and maternity
ward. Later on they expanded activities to the town of Tchonka, the second epicenter of the
outbreak.

In Lulingu,
the team has treated 1,526 people since 4 May for malaria with Artesunate and
with blood transfusions when required. Malaria can cause severe anemia and
patients frequently need transfusions, with blood generally provided by members
of their own family. Since MSF's team started work, mortality rates among
malaria patients in Lulingu have dropped from more than 5 per cent (above the
emergency threshold or 1 in
20 patients, most of them children under the age of 15) to 1.29 per cent.

In Tchonka,
the team has carried out 1,359 consultations, with 925 cases of malaria confirmed.

The teams
are also providing local communities with information about protecting
themselves from malaria, and about the importance of seeking medical help as
soon as symptoms appear. "Early detection is vital to shorten the time of
recovery (usually one to two weeks), but prevention and information (to stress
the importance of a correct use of mosquito nets, for example) is also
indispensable in stopping the spread of the disease", says Liliana
Palacios, MSF's medical responsible for the projects in DRC.

The teams
expect their emergency malaria response to last until the end of August given
the large numbers of people with malaria symptoms continuing to arrive to
Lulingu and Tchonka's health facilities. The areas around Lulingu and Tchonka
have a combined population of about 30,000.

Malaria is
the cause of 40 per cent of deaths in children in DRC. MSF teams in the country
treated more than 434,000 people for malaria last year in its projects and
emergency operations in North and South Kivu, Katanga,
Ecuador,
Oriental and Maniema. MSF has been working in DRC since 1981.