According to the available epidemiological and entomological information, and the arriving winter season, the intensity of malaria transmission in Evrotas, Lakonia in Greece is believed to be very low and is expected to cease shortly.
’Prevention of infections among people who inject drugs is achievable and effective – if it is properly executed’, stresses ECDC Director Marc Sprenger.
The second ECDC advisory group meeting will discuss progress and future challenges in reporting and monitoring following the commitment outlined in the Dublin Declaration.
56 adult patients with PCR confirmed P. knowlesi malaria from Sabah are described. 22 (39%) of these had strictly defined severe malaria including respiratory distress, acute renal failure and shock.
On 9 June, ECDC will be hosting a technical side-event to the United Nations High-Level Meeting on AIDS 2011. The event will highlight how countries and regions with differing epidemiology could improve their responses to HIV/AIDS.
Artemisinin resistance in falciparum malaria has emerged in western Cambodia exactly where chloroquine resistance arose 50 years ago. Similarly to the resistance to chloroquine that spread to Africa, the experts are wondering whether artemisinin resistance will spread as widely. In such a case the consequences would be disastrous.
The authors describe a case of imported Plasmodium knowlesi infection in a French tourist acquired in Thailand. The patient had spent a three month beach holiday on the west coast of Thailand including a one month stay on the Island of Ko Payam.
Using surveillance data obtained from 21,888 imported Plasmodium falciparum cases in France during 1996-2003, factors independently associated with severe malaria (832 cases; ≈3.8%) were older age, European origin, travel to eastern Africa, absence of chemoprophylaxis, initial visit to a general practitioner, time to diagnosis of 4 to 12 days, and diagnosis during the fall-winter season.