Each year, the mosquito-borne infection affects more than 219 million people worldwide, according to the 2018 statistics of the World Health Organization (WHO). A new research has warned that malaria infection is linked to 30 percent higher risk of heart failure.

The first author of the study, Philip Brainin, a postdoctoral research fellow at the Herlev-Gentofte University Hospital in Denmark, said that they have seen arise in the prevalence of malaria cases and interestingly, have seen the same rise in cardiovascular disease in the same regions. It remains a major burden even though they have taken preventive measures to decrease the malaria numbers.

Danish nationwide registries were used by the researchers 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 and 58 percent of the subjects were male.

Almost 4,000 malaria cases were identified and 40 percent were having plasmodium falciparum, a parasite transmitted through mosquito bites which is responsible for the majority of severe malaria cases in humans.

The 11-year follow-up of patients discovered 69 cases of heart failure, which were very high as compared to the general population, and 68 cases of cardiovascular death, that were considered within normal range. These patients had a 30 percent increased possibility of developing heart failure over the follow-up time.

Further research will be needed to validate the findings, but current studies have found that malaria could be a contributor to functional and structural changes in the myocardium, which is the muscle tissue of the heart.

Also, experimental studies have shown that malaria can affect the blood pressure regulatory system causing hypertension, which is again a contributor to heart failure. Malaria also affect vascular pathways causing inflammation in the heart, which can lead to fibrosis and eventually heart failure.

According to the European Society of Cardiology (ESC), a combination of high blood pressure, diabetes, obesity, and coronary artery disease are the most common risk factors for heart failure. The findings were presented at the ESC Congress 2019 with the World Congress of Cardiology in Paris.

Amongst the high malaria burden countries, India has made considerable progress in disease control. The malaria burden has declined by almost 80 percent. According to Indian Council of Medical Research, malaria cases have come down to 0.39 million in 2018 from 2.03 million cases in 2000. Malaria deaths in India have also declined by almost 90 percent -- from 932 deaths in 2000 to 85 in 2018.