Article Source: European Society of Cardiology / 2019
Topic(s): Environmental and Occupational Aspects of Heart Disease
Paris, France – 02 Sept 2019: Malaria infection is linked with a 30% raised risk of heart failure, according to a small study presented today at ESC Congress 2019 together with the World Congress of Cardiology. (1)
The mosquito-borne infection affects more than 219 million people worldwide each year, according to 2018 statistics from the World Health Organization (WHO). (2)
“We have seen an increase in the incidence of malaria cases and what is intriguing is we have seen the same increase in cardiovascular disease in the same regions,” said first author Dr Philip Brainin, a postdoctoral research fellow at Herlev-Gentofte University Hospital, Denmark. “Even though we have taken preventive measures to decrease the malaria numbers it remains a major burden.”
The researchers used Danish nationwide registries to identify patients with a history of malaria infection between January 1994 and January 2017. The mean age of patients in the study was 34 years old and 58% were male.
A total of 3,989 malaria cases were identified, with 40% having plasmodium falciparum, a parasite transmitted through mosquito bites that is responsible for the majority of severe malaria cases in humans.
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