The World Health Organization (WHO) named Sri Lanka as a malaria-free country in 2016. However, not a single case of malaria has been reported in Sri Lanka since 2012.
The country was able to make the number of malaria infections zero by that time as a result of the malaria control programs that have been in place for nearly 100 years. Sri Lanka as well as a large number of other countries has now eradicated malaria.
Thousands
Although Sri Lanka has been able to eradicate the malaria epidemic in recent times, on a number of occasions Sri Lanka had to deal with severe malaria epidemics.
Thousands of patients died and their families were left largely helpless, especially as the health sector in the country was not so advanced decades ago.
This article is about such a dangerous malaria epidemic situation in Sri Lanka, which occurred in the 1930s.
Malaria is caused by single-celled microorganisms of the Plasmodium group. It is spread exclusively through bites of infected Anopheles mosquitoe. It causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause yellow skin, seizures, coma, or death.
Symptoms usually begin 10 to 15 days after being bitten by an infected mosquito. If not properly treated, people may have recurrences of the disease months later. In those who have recently survived an infection, reinfection usually causes milder symptoms
The mosquito bite introduces the parasites from the mosquito’s saliva into a person’s blood. Most deaths due to malaria are caused by P. falciparum, whereas P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae generally cause a milder form of malaria.
Deaths
The species P. knowlesi rarely causes disease in humans. Malaria is typically diagnosed by the microscopic examination of blood using blood films, or with antigen-based rapid diagnostic tests. Methods that use the polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to detect the parasite’s DNA have been developed, but are not widely used in areas where malaria is common due to their cost and complexity.
Evidence suggests that malaria was widespread in Ceylon even in the 4th century AD. The largest recent malaria epidemic in Sri Lanka occurred in 1934-35. In these two years, 1.5 million malaria cases were reported, killing more than 80,000 people.
Thereafter, malaria in Sri Lanka reached epidemic levels in 1968-1970, 1974-1976, 1986-1988 and 1991-1993. In 2002, 30 people died of malaria, but every year since then, the number of deaths due to malaria has dropped to less than 10.
The last death due to malaria in Sri Lanka was recorded in 2009, while the last case of malaria was reported in October, 2012.
In 1935 the total population of Sri Lanka was reported to be less than 6 million. It is therefore, estimated that a quarter of the country’s population was infected with malaria at that time.
The Government was working hard to provide health care, food, clothing and economic rehabilitation for the people at that time. The then Minister of Home Affairs, Sir D. B. Jayatilaka was given this role and he too was once infected with malaria.
Vulnerable
Members of the Sri Lanka Sooriyamal Movement, led by the late Dr. N.M. Perera had at the time, gone to many areas in the country to find the vulnerable villagers affected by malaria.
Perera said that he had seen a large number of patients who died before him, due to the lack of proper treatment, and that some villages had become graveyards. He had also seen babies trying to suckle from their mothers’ breasts without knowing that their mother had died. As he went from village to village carrying things like rice, dhal, marmite, sugar and tea leaves for the malaria patients, Perera was nicknamed Parippu Mama by the villagers.
