Artemisinin resistance in falciparum malaria has emerged in western Cambodia exactly where chloroquine resistance arose 50 years ago. Similarly to the resistance to chloroquine that spread to Africa, the experts are wondering whether artemisinin resistance will spread as widely. In such a case the consequences would be disastrous.
The authors describe a case of imported Plasmodium knowlesi infection in a French tourist acquired in Thailand. The patient had spent a three month beach holiday on the west coast of Thailand including a one month stay on the Island of Ko Payam.
In recent years there have been a series of arguments and findings suggesting that Statins (HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors) which used widely to lower cholesterol levels may also be important in reducing the risk associated with severe infective conditions.
Using surveillance data obtained from 21,888 imported Plasmodium falciparum cases in France during 1996-2003, factors independently associated with severe malaria (832 cases; ≈3.8%) were older age, European origin, travel to eastern Africa, absence of chemoprophylaxis, initial visit to a general practitioner, time to diagnosis of 4 to 12 days, and diagnosis during the fall-winter season.
This study describes the outcome of 25 travellers with severe malaria who returned from malaria-endemic regions and were treated at 7 centres in Europe with intravenous artesunate. Among these 25 patients, one child and 24 adults (mean ± SD age 44.1 ± 16.1 years), 10 patients received the dosing regimen for artesunate initially recommended by WHO and 11 received artesunate, 2.4 mg/kg/dose.
The heptavalent pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV7) targets seven of the more than 92 pneumococcal serotypes. Concerns have been raised that non-vaccine serotypes (NVTs) could increase in prevalence and reduce the benefits of vaccination. Indeed, among asymptomatic carriers, the prevalence of NVTs has increased substantially, and consequently, there has been little or no net change in the bacterial carriage prevalence.
In the context of an active nationwide surveillance network, this study describes pneumoccocal meningitis in children aged from 1 day to 15 years during a 8 year study period (2001-2008) in France. 951 pneumoccocal meningitis cases were reported among 3312 children with bacterial meningitis. T
This descriptive study, based on national surveillance data of reported malaria cases, travelers’ statistics and data on malaria chemoprophylaxis prescriptions, estimates the incidence and trends of imported malaria in the Netherlands.