Brazil reviews malaria facilities, invests in equipment
This article was originally published in Clinica
Executive Summary
Brazilian healthcare authorities are investing in malaria diagnostics equipment, following a review of the facilities developed under the national malaria control programme (PNCM), launched in 2003. The scale of the programme is impressive: there are 2,860 malaria diagnostics laboratories in 805 municipalities, supported by over 14,000 notification units and almost 37,000 staff (excluding doctors and other clinical care staff). The programme has so far resulted in a significant fall in incidence rate, from 31.9 per 1,000 inhabitants in 1999, to 18.3 per 1,000 in 2003, and a fall in case fatality rate, from 0.30 to 0.23 per 1,000 cases, over the same period.