The Malaria Program is dealing with a population at risk estimated to be around 80,000 people, mostly living in and around the gold mining areas.
In the last decade with support from the Global Fund and applying the best practices generated by the AMI-RAVREDA network, (USAID-PAHO) Suriname has reached the Roll Back Malaria and the Millennium Development Goals for Malaria. The Annual Parasitic Index has dropped from circa 88 in 2004 to 1.06 in 2015. This means that currently the annual number of cases is nearing the elimination level of 1 case per 1000 people at risk.
Malaria has practically been eliminated in the stable villages of the interior, which previously had the highest transmission rates in the Americas. Malaria in Suriname has decreased to less than 90 autochthonous (nationally transmitted) cases a year. Hospital admissions for malaria have decreased enormously (by 97%) from 377 in 2003 to 11 in 2015. Deaths due to malaria have dropped from 24 in 2000 to 1 in 2013. In 2014 and 2015, no deaths were recorded.
Achieving this remarkable impact was done by:
a) Increasing access to malaria diagnosis and treatment; establishment of a Malaria Service Deliverer network using Rapid Diagnostic Tests and further promotion of a Malaria Clinic in the capital with very low threshold for the target populations.
b) Reduction of transmission by mass-blood-screening of the at-risk populations.
c) Distribution of long-lasting Insecticide treated nets in high-risk areas
d) Prevention of re-establishment of malaria in areas where control was successful by implementing border posts, early detection and case investigation (to determine place of infection and implement targeted control measures)
e) Working with surveillance guided interventions (with a low threshold to initiate actions in place).