Text

Current Malaria Situation in Several Villages of Belu Regency, West Timor Indonesia

The malaria situation in West Timor, Indonesia can be a potential threat to malaria elimination, both in nationally and internationally. The aim of our study was to identify the current malaria situation in West Timor region. A malaria survey was conducted at 8 elementary schools of 5 villages in Wewiku subdistrict, Belu Regency of 1,009 children aged 5-12 years old. Administration of dihydroartemisinin--piperaquine plus primaquine was provided by using the direct observation treatment for those who had positive microscopic examination result. A mosquito survey was performed using human landing catch technique and mosquito net interception trap. Anopheles mosquitoes were morphologically identified using criteria of the Indonesian identification key for female Anopheles. A malaria prevalence of 7.7% was found (78/1,009) with predominant infection of Plasmodium vivax 4.7%, P. falciparum 2.8% as opposed to P. malariae infection, which was only 0.2%. The school-based slide-positive rate ranged between 5.7%-12.8%. All children with positive results had undergone complete treatment with dihydroartemisinin--piperaquine plus primaquine in accordance to their plasmodium species and none of them experiencing any serious adverse event. About 1,574 Anopheles mosquitoes had been collected successfully and 3 Anopheles mosquito species captured. An. barbirostris (1,092) was the predominant species followed by An. subpictus (180) and An. vagus (85). These Anopheles mosquitoes bite more actively during the night than the day. Malaria disease is meso--endemic in Belu Regency and there are 3 out of 10 types of Anopheles, which potentially may become the vectors.