Travelers not taking antimalarial drugs and returning to Britain with a potentially fatal form of malaria have increased in number, health officials said yesterday.
A Health Protection Agency (HPA) study identified 6,753 cases of falciparum malaria diagnosed in the UK between 2002 and 2006.
According to experts, many of the malarial cases in the UK occur among migrants who become infected while visiting west Africa where the disease is endemic. Many travellers do not take antimalarial pills because they believe they are already immune.
Professor Peter Chiodini, head of the HPA's Malaria Reference Laboratory, said: "There is a prevailing myth that travelers who were born in a malaria-endemic country such as Africa have some 'natural' immunity to malaria and this is simply not the case.”
About Mosquito Diseases
Mosquito-borne diseases, like malaria, filaria, dengue, etc are common in places conducive of mosquito breeding. Swamps, ponds and stagnated drainage provide optimal breeding ground for mosquitoes.
Mosquito-borne diseases, like malaria, filaria, dengue, etc are common in places conducive of mosquito breeding. Swamps, ponds and stagnated drainage provide optimal breeding ground for mosquitoes.
Cases of malaria were found to be concentrated in communities where people frequently travelled to west Africa. Some 96% of falciparum malaria infections followed visits to west Africa, with more than half the cases in travellers returning from Nigeria and Ghana.
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According to the report only two-fifths of the UK travelers had made any effort to prevent malaria by taking prophylaxis drugs before or during their trip, especially those born in or with family ties to malaria-endemic areas.
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Travel medicine advice is freely available at GP surgeries, and specialist travel medicine clinics in the UK's bigger cities.
Source-Medindia
THK/M
