UK travelers are not taking enough caution when traveling to Malaria prone countries

The Health Protection Agency’s Malaria Reference Laboratory released a study that shows that travelers from the UK to Africa and Asia have steadily grown in the number of Malaria cases reported over the last two decades.  The study showed that since 1987 there have been 39,300 cases of Malaria.  Just over 20,000 of these cases were UK citizens traveling to a country where Malaria remains a risk and the other portion of the cases are people traveling to the UK from these same countries where Malaria is prevalent. 

58 per cent of those traveling from the UK that were interviewed did not take any medication that could have prevented Malaria despite the very effective medications that are available to do so.  Of the 1,548 Malaria cases reported last year a frightening 83 per cent of those cases had not taken any type of preventative measure to guard against disease.

A professor at the Malaria Reference Laboratory, Peter Chiodini, stated that “It is vital that anyone travelling to any area where Malaria is a risk seeks medical advice before their trip.  This is particularly true for people traveling to visit friends and relatives who have been show to take less precautions to protect themselves than other people who are on holiday.  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.  Like all other people who go to Africa and Asia they need to make sure they take their anti-malaria drugs and follow guidelines that are there to protect everyone.   Without taking the appropriate protective drugs and using other preventative measures to prevent mosquito bites, UK travelers are exposing themselves to a killer disease that is almost completely preventable.”

www.hpa.org.uk/web/HPAweb&Page&HPAwebAutoListName/Page/1200660023262