Between 21 May and 5 December, 2011, 63 cases of Plasmodium vivax infection have been reported in Greece. The majority of cases (n=57) are reported from the area of Evrotas in Lakonia district, Peloponnese in southern Greece.
According to the available epidemiological and entomological information, and the arriving winter season, the intensity of malaria transmission in Evrotas, Lakonia in Greece is very low.
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.
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.
ECDC Director Marc Sprenger at the European Parliament Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) stressed the importance of the EU’s continuous commitment in the fight against hepatitis B and hepatitis C.
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.
This study describes the outcome of 25 travellers with severe malaria who returned from malaria-endemic regions and were treated at 7 centres in Europe with intravenous artesunate. Among these 25 patients, one child and 24 adults (mean ± SD age 44.1 ± 16.1 years), 10 patients received the dosing regimen for artesunate initially recommended by WHO and 11 received artesunate, 2.4 mg/kg/dose.