Malaria kills 818 people in epidemic in Burundi

BUJUMBURA, Burundi - A severe malaria outbreak in the past month has killed 818 people, including at least 100 children, a medical official said Monday.

The epidemic broke out in the Mwaro province of the tiny central African nation, said Dr. Tharcisse Barihuta, director of the National Program for Communicable Diseases. The provinces of Gitega and Cibitoke were also hit hard, he said.

Most of victims died ''either by refusing to treat the disease and turning to traditional medicine or because they lacked money to go to a doctor,'' said Health Minister Stanislas Ntahomvukiye.

Malaria is transmitted by the bite of the Anopheles mosquito, which carries the Plasmodium parasite. There is no vaccine to prevent malaria, but it can be suppressed by taking daily or weekly doses of antimalarial medicines, which are also used in larger doses to treat the illness. Most Africans cannot afford these medicines.

Mosquito nets treated with insecticide are promoted as the best defense against the malaria-bearing mosquitoes, but most people in Africa do not have these.

The National Program for Communicable Diseases estimates that one of every two Burundians will be infected with malaria this year in the country of 6.5 million. The World Health Organization says that Malaria kills an estimated 1 million around the world, but the majority of victims are young children in Africa.