Friday 12 June 2015

Malaria figures in UK travellers for 2014

Public Health England have published 'Malaria imported into the United Kingdom: 2014.  Implications for those advising travellers' on their website this morning.  See the news item here

In 2014 there were 1586 cases of imported malaria which is 5.7% higher than in 2013.  The majority of these cases were caused by P. falciparum (1192 which was 79.4%) and there were three deaths.  There was also an increase in P.vivax  and P.ovale malaria cases.  To see the statistics see here  London continues to report the largest proportion of cases in England and the report gives details of this along with overall travel history, ethnic origin, age and sex factors etc.  The top three countries of travel for people returning with malaria were 1.Nigeria, 2 Ghana and 3. Sierra Leone.  Where a history of chemoprophylaxis was known, 82% of those patients had not taken any.  The report provides an interesting and helpful review and will provide more information than that given here so click on the image below to see.