Malaria epidemiology in colombian caribbean, 1950-2019

Epidemiología de malaria en la región Caribe colombiana, 1950-2019

Objective: Establish malaria epidemiology behavior in Colombian Caribbean, 1950-2019. Methods: A study descriptive, retrospective and observational was conducted of secondary sources information of Ministry Health 1950-2019. Variables of place, person and time were defined. A malaria cases database was organized, indicators of absolute frequency, measures of central tendency and relative frequency were estimated. Results: The accumulated malaria cases registered were 325.427. The decades 1950-1959 (33.6%) and 1980-1989 (29.3%) contributed the highest burden of cases. The average per decade was 46.489 cases/decade (SD ± 38,551, M: 25,283), the maximum and minimum values were 109.416 and 19.525 cases respectively. The distribution of cases by species was 55.8% (181.663 cases) for Plasmodium vivax and 44.2% (143.764 cases) for P.falciparum. The annual parasite incidence, P.falciparum incidence and  P.vivax incidence were of 2.2, 1.1 and 0.8 per 1.000 inhabitants respectively. The departments that contributed the highest case load were Bolívar, La Guajira and Magdalena. Conclusions: The secular behavior of transmission showed an endemo-epidemic pattern, of low and very low intensity of transmission, with a predominance of P.vivax infections and an irregular frequency in the appearance of outbreaks.

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