[Malaria control in Brazil: 1965 to 2001]

Abstract

This paper reviews malaria control initiatives in Brazil, from the Malaria Eradication Campaign (Campanha de Erradicação da Malária), which was launched in 1965 and was based on spraying dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) and on administering antimalarial drugs, to the implementation, in 2000, of the Program for Intensification of Malaria Control in the nine-state Legal Amazon region of Brazil (Plano de Intensificação das Ações de Controle da Malária na Amazônia Legal), which was implemented in response to the World Health Organization's Roll Back Malaria effort. Among the Brazilian initiatives discussed are epidemiological stratification, the Impact Operation (Operação Impacto), the Amazon Basin Malaria Control Project (Projeto de Controle da Malária na Bacia Amazônica), and the Integrated Malaria Control Program (Programa de Controle Integrado da Malária). Although there was progress in the control of malaria before the Intensification Program was launched in 2000, the actions carried out were not sustained. From 1998 to 1999 there was even a 34% increase in the number of malaria cases in the Brazilian Amazon. The Intensification Program set a goal, in comparison to 1999, of reducing by 50% the number of malaria cases by the end of 2001 and of cutting by 50% the mortality due to malaria by the end of 2002. Data for 2001 showed an overall 39% decrease in the number of malaria cases in the nine Amazonian states of the Intensification Program. The smallest decrease (15%) was in the state of Amapá, where the plan was not implemented until the second half of 2001. In terms of incidence by species, there was a 35% reduction in cases caused by Plasmodium falciparum and a 41% reduction in cases caused by P. vivax. The only independent variable that explains this reduction is the implementation of the Intensification Program. Although preliminary, these results indicate considerable gains. Decisive to this progress has been the strong mobilization of federal, state, and municipal governments.