Malaria risk stratification in Colombian Caribbean

Estratificación del riesgo de transmisión malárica en la región Caribe colombiana.

Objective: Determine the malaria risk transmission in Colombian Caribbean. Methods: A descriptive and retrospective observational study was conducted in 167 municipalities Colombian Caribbean between 2010-2019. The municipalities were classified as: S4: Municipalities with native cases of active and residual foci; S3: Receptive, without native cases, and with risk importation of parasite; S2: Receptive without transmission and low vulnerability; S1: Non-receptive located above 1.600 meters above sea level in which there is no proven risk transmission, according to criteria proposed by PAHO. Results: The municipalities classified as S4 were 5 % (8): seven in Bolívar and one in La Guajira department. The municipalities classified as S3 were 72,4% (121) and S4 were 22,8% (38). The accumulated burden of cases in the region was 23.285 cases, with a predominance of Plasmodium vivax, and 80,8% (18.804 cases) of the burden was registered in municipalities S4. Conclusions: The Colombian Caribbean evidence endemic-epidemic transmission, focal and dispersed, variable and of very low intensity. There are two active foci of indigenous transmission in southern Bolivar and rural areas of Riohacha, La Guajira.

1- Padilla-Rodríguez JC, Olivera MJ, Ahumada-Franco ML,Paredes-Medina AE. (2021). Malaria risk stratification in Colombia 2010 to 2019. Plos one 16(3): e0247811.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0247811
2- Instituto Nacional de Salud. Informe evento malaria. Bogotá, Colombia: 2019. https://www.ins.gov.co/buscadoreventos/Informesdeevento/MALARIASEMESTREI2019.pdf.
3- Organización Panamericana de la Salud. Manual de estratificación según el riesgo de malaria y eliminacion de focos de transmisión: región de las Américas (Draft). Washington DC; 2019. https://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?optioncom_docman&view=download&slug=malaria-technical-advisory-group-session-8-2019-only-in-spanish&Itemid=270&lang=en.