Malaria and Vitamin D Deficiency, a Cause for Concern

Voloc A, Rusu I, Spinei L, Voloc C and Rotari A

Published on: 2026-04-10

Abstract

Introduction: Both malaria and Vitamin D deficiency are widely spread worldwide and each of them represent a significant public health issue. Moreover, the countries that have been declared by the WHO as malaria free zones such as the Republic of Moldova (formerly known as Bessarabia) and the European continent, are, at present, at high risk of reappearance of new indigenous malaria outbreaks in regions where this disease was wreaking havoc during the post-war period.

Material and methods: The secondary, qualitative, narrative synthesis study was carried out by searching for the results of published primary studies, using the electronic databases Cochrane, PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science. From 116 bibliographic sources, 44 were selected, published between 1962 and 2025 in different languages ??(English, French and Romanian) with keywords corresponding to the theme of the study. 72 publications were excluded for the following reasons: mismatch between the name and the results, between the result presented in the abstract and the respective section of the article, by geographical region, duplicates.

Results: Reappearance of new indigenous malaria outbreaks is due to the increase of border permeability, increase of refugees, intense migration and the presence of vectors capable of carrying and spreading this parasitic disease, as well as the flaws in the surveillance of the epidemiological state in a lot of European countries. In the quest for better solutions to prevent and treat malaria, scientists determined that vitamin D could enhance the immune defense-mechanism across all population categories reduce the number of patients with serious forms of malaria, decrease the incidence of neuro-malaria and even the mortality rate caused by this deadly parasitic disease, particularly in children younger than 5 years old.

Conclusions: In this review, we have analyzed the epidemiological situation in Bessarabia (currently Republic of Moldova), as well as in neighboring countries such as Ukraine, Romania and tried to reproduce the epidemiological situation of malaria in correlation with the spread of vitamin D deficiency at the global level, proposing strategies for correcting and preventing its deficient status.