Epidemiologic features of overseas imported malaria in the People's Republic of China

Malaria Journal

Research

Canjun Zheng¹  Sheng Zhou¹  Liping Wang¹  Zhongjie Li¹  Honglong Zhang¹  Junling Sun¹  Qian Zhang¹  Zike Zhang²  Shengjie Lai³  Qibin Geng⁴  Weizhong Yang⁵  Xiao-Nong Zhou⁶  Archie C. A. Clements⁷  Wenbiao Hu⁸ 

[1] Division of Infectious Diseases, Key Laboratory of Surveillance and Early-warning on Infectious Disease, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 155 Changbai Road, 102206, Changping, Beijing, China;Division of Infectious Diseases, Key Laboratory of Surveillance and Early-warning on Infectious Disease, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 155 Changbai Road, 102206, Changping, Beijing, China;Center of Clinical Laboratory, the First Affiliated Hospital, College of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou, China;Division of Infectious Diseases, Key Laboratory of Surveillance and Early-warning on Infectious Disease, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 155 Changbai Road, 102206, Changping, Beijing, China;Department of Geography and Environment, University of Southampton, Southampton, UK;Division of Infectious Diseases, Key Laboratory of Surveillance and Early-warning on Infectious Disease, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, 155 Changbai Road, 102206, Changping, Beijing, China;State Key Laboratory of Virology and College of Life Sciences, Wuhan University, Wuhan, China;Key Laboratory of Surveillance and Early-warning on Infectious Disease, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Beijing, China;National Institute of Parasitic Diseases, Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention, Key Laboratory of Parasite and Vector Biology, MOH, WHO Collaborating Centre for Tropic Diseases, National Center for International Research on Tropical Diseases, 207 Rui Jin Er Road, 200025, Shanghai, People’s Republic of China;Research School of Population Health, College of Medicine, Biology and Environment, The Australian National University, Canberra, Australia;School of Public Health and Social Work, Queensland University of Technology, Brisbane, Australia;

关键词: Malaria;    Imported;    Epidemiology;    China;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12936-016-1188-7

 received in 2015-12-05, accepted in 2016-02-23,  发布年份 2016

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

BackgroundWith the dramatic increase in international travel among Chinese people, the risk of malaria importation from malaria-endemic regions threatens the achievement of the malaria elimination goal of China.MethodsEpidemiological investigations of all imported malaria cases were conducted in nine provinces of China from 1 Nov, 2013 to 30 Oct, 2014. Plasmodium species, spatiotemporal distribution, clinical severity, preventive measures and infection history of the imported malaria cases were analysed using descriptive statistics.ResultsA total of 1420 imported malaria cases were recorded during the study period, with P. falciparum (723 cases, 50.9 %) and P. vivax (629 cases, 44.3 %) being the two predominant species. Among them, 81.8 % of cases were in Chinese overseas labourers. The imported cases returned from 41 countries, mainly located in Africa (58.9 %) and Southeast Asia (39.4 %). About a quarter (25.5 %, 279/1094) of counties in the nine study provinces were affected by imported malaria cases. There were 112 cases (7.9 %) developing complicated malaria, including 12 deaths (case fatality rate: 0.8 %). Only 27.8 % of the imported cases had taken prophylactic anti-malarial drugs. While staying abroad, 27.7 % of the cases had experienced two or more episodes of malaria infection. The awareness of clinical manifestations and the capacity for malaria diagnosis were weak in private clinics and primary healthcare facilities.ConclusionsImported malaria infections among Chinese labourers, returned from various countries, poses an increasing challenge to the malaria elimination programme in China. The risk of potential re-introduction of malaria into inland malaria-free areas of China should be urgently addressed.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Li et al. 2016