Malaria prophylaxis in travellers to tropical Africa

Abstract

This study investigated travellers to tropical Africa with regard to prophylactic treatment of malaria. A total of 5703 travellers completed a questionnaire on their flights back to the Federal Republic of Germany; 4116 passengers (73.7%) had visited East Africa, while 808 (14.5%) had been to West Africa. The results indicate that 90.2% took a regular chemoprophylaxis against malaria. Nevertheless, 8.1% of the travellers used no antimalarials and in 9.3% chemoprophylaxis was inadequate due to inappropriate advice; for example, 7.5% still took pyrimethamine-sulfadoxine as prophylactic. Mefloquine was correctly taken by 38.9% of the travellers in East Africa; 12.6% used it in West Africa where it is not necessary. Antimosquito measures have a high priority for travellers to tropical Africa and dissemination of this fact must be improved since only 72.6% followed through on such advice.

How Frequent are Notified Severe Cutaneous Adverse Reactions to Fansidar®?

“…This risk, we feel, is acceptable compared to the risks of falciparum malaria in non-immune travellers (Lobel et al 1990;Steffen et al 1990;Weinke et al 1990) or semi-immune residents. In children under the age of 5 years living in endemic areas, the falciparum malaria death rate is estimated to be I to 10 per 1000 per year, and the case fatality to be 1% (Greenwood et al 1991).…”