Airport malaria: report of four cases in Tunisia

Malaria Journal

Case Report

Faiçal Zouiten¹  Jabeur Daaboub²  Dhikrayet Gamara³  Kalthoum Kallel⁴  Karim Aoun⁵  Emna Siala⁵  Aïda Bouratbine⁵  Sandrine Houzé⁶ 

[1] Consultation privée d’infectiologie, Tunis, Tunisia;Direction de l’Hygiène du Milieu et de Protection de l’Environnement, Tunis, Tunisia;Direction des Soins de Santé de Base, Tunis, Tunisia;Laboratoire de Parasitologie-Mycologie, Hôpital La Rabta, Tunis, Tunisia;Laboratoire de Parasitologie-Mycologie, Tunis, Tunisia;LR 11-IPT-06 «Parasitologie Médicale, Biotechnologies & Biomolécules», Institut Pasteur de Tunis, Tunis, Tunisia;Malaria National Reference Centre, AP-HP, Bichât Hospital, Paris, France;

关键词: Airport malaria;    Plasmodium falciparum;    Anopheles;    Tunisia;   

DOI  :  10.1186/s12936-015-0566-x

 received in 2014-11-07, accepted in 2015-01-15,  发布年份 2015

来源: Springer

【 摘 要 】

Four cases of airport malaria were notified for the first time in Tunisia during the summer of 2013. All patients were neighbours living within 2 km of Tunis International Airport. They had no history of travel to malarious countries, of blood transfusion or of intravenous drug use. Although malaria transmission had ceased in Tunisia since 1980, autochthonous infection by local Anopheles mosquitoes was initially considered. However, this diagnostic hypothesis was ruled out due to negative entomological survey and the absence of additional cases.All cases were caused by Plasmodium falciparum. Clinical presentation was severe (important thrombocytopaenia and parasitaemia), because of relatively important delay in diagnosis (average of seven days). This indicates the need to consider malaria while examining airport employees or people living near international airports presenting with fever of unknown origin. It also stresses the need for effective spraying of aircrafts coming from malarious areas.

【 授权许可】

CC BY   
© Siala et al.; licensee BioMed Central. 2015