Nine deaths caused by zoonotic malaria

PUTRAJAYA - The Health Ministry confirms that nine out of the 11 deaths caused by malaria last year was due to zoonotic malaria.

Health Minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa said zoonotic malaria can cause severe malaria infection and potentially cause death if it was diagnosed late.

She said from the total malaria cases reported in 2022, 89.2 per cent were zoonotic malaria cases and the rest were imported malaria cases.

"The cumulative number of malaria cases reported up to the 10th epidemiological week (ME10) is 527 cases.

"The number had increased by 30.4 per cent which is 123 cases compared to 404 cases recorded last year during the same period," she said when met by reporters after officiating the Tropical Infectious Diseases Conference, here, today.

She said out of the number, 460 cases were zoonotic malaria and the remaining 67 cases were human infected malaria.

"We have intensified vector control in identified locations by spraying and destroying mosquito breeding places," she said.

Zoonotic malaria is caused by the parasite Plasmodium knowlesi and it is often transmitted outdoors.

It is transmitted from monkeys or macaques, which are hosts to the parasite, to humans by infected Anopheles sp. mosquitoes bites.