Cargando…
Increase in imported malaria in the Netherlands in asylum seekers and VFR travellers
BACKGROUND: Malaria is a notifiable disease in the Netherlands, a non-endemic country. Imported malaria infections occur regularly among travellers, migrants and visitors. Surveillance data were analysed from 2008 to 2015. Trends in amounts of notifications among risk groups were analysed using Pois...
Autores principales: | , , , , , , , |
---|---|
Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
BioMed Central
2017
|
Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5288937/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28148300 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12936-017-1711-5 |
_version_ | 1782504421719015424 |
---|---|
author | de Gier, Brechje Suryapranata, Franciska S. T. Croughs, Mieke van Genderen, Perry J. J. Keuter, Monique Visser, Leo G. van Vugt, Michele Sonder, Gerard J. B. |
author_facet | de Gier, Brechje Suryapranata, Franciska S. T. Croughs, Mieke van Genderen, Perry J. J. Keuter, Monique Visser, Leo G. van Vugt, Michele Sonder, Gerard J. B. |
author_sort | de Gier, Brechje |
collection | PubMed |
description | BACKGROUND: Malaria is a notifiable disease in the Netherlands, a non-endemic country. Imported malaria infections occur regularly among travellers, migrants and visitors. Surveillance data were analysed from 2008 to 2015. Trends in amounts of notifications among risk groups were analysed using Poisson regression. For asylum seekers, yearly incidence was calculated per region of origin, using national asylum request statistics as denominator data. For tourists, denominator data were used from travel statistics to estimate incidence per travel region up to 2012. RESULTS: A modest increase in overall imported malaria notifications occurred in 2008–2015 (from 222 in 2008 to 344 in 2015). Notably, in 2014 and 2015 sharp increases were seen in malaria among travellers visiting friends and relatives (VFR), and in asylum seekers. Of all Plasmodium falciparum infections, most (1254/1337; 93.8%) were imported from Africa; 1037/1337 (77.6%) were imported from Central and West Africa. Malaria in VFR was mostly caused by P. falciparum infection after visiting Ghana (22%) or Nigeria (19%). Malaria in asylum seekers was mostly caused by Plasmodium vivax infection from the Horn of Africa. The large number of notifications in asylum seekers resulted from both an increase in number of asylum seekers and a striking increase of malaria incidence in this group. Incidence of malaria in asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa ranged between 0.02 and 0.3% in 2008–2013, but rose to 1.6% in 2014 and 1.3% in 2015. In 2008–2012, incidence in tourists visiting Central and West Africa dropped markedly. CONCLUSIONS: Imported malaria is on the rise again in the Netherlands, most notably since 2013. This is mostly due to immigration of asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa. The predominance of P. vivax infection among asylum seekers warrants vigilance in health workers when a migrant presents with fever, as relapses of this type of malaria can occur long after arrival in the Netherlands. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12936-017-1711-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5288937 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2017 |
publisher | BioMed Central |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-52889372017-02-09 Increase in imported malaria in the Netherlands in asylum seekers and VFR travellers de Gier, Brechje Suryapranata, Franciska S. T. Croughs, Mieke van Genderen, Perry J. J. Keuter, Monique Visser, Leo G. van Vugt, Michele Sonder, Gerard J. B. Malar J Research BACKGROUND: Malaria is a notifiable disease in the Netherlands, a non-endemic country. Imported malaria infections occur regularly among travellers, migrants and visitors. Surveillance data were analysed from 2008 to 2015. Trends in amounts of notifications among risk groups were analysed using Poisson regression. For asylum seekers, yearly incidence was calculated per region of origin, using national asylum request statistics as denominator data. For tourists, denominator data were used from travel statistics to estimate incidence per travel region up to 2012. RESULTS: A modest increase in overall imported malaria notifications occurred in 2008–2015 (from 222 in 2008 to 344 in 2015). Notably, in 2014 and 2015 sharp increases were seen in malaria among travellers visiting friends and relatives (VFR), and in asylum seekers. Of all Plasmodium falciparum infections, most (1254/1337; 93.8%) were imported from Africa; 1037/1337 (77.6%) were imported from Central and West Africa. Malaria in VFR was mostly caused by P. falciparum infection after visiting Ghana (22%) or Nigeria (19%). Malaria in asylum seekers was mostly caused by Plasmodium vivax infection from the Horn of Africa. The large number of notifications in asylum seekers resulted from both an increase in number of asylum seekers and a striking increase of malaria incidence in this group. Incidence of malaria in asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa ranged between 0.02 and 0.3% in 2008–2013, but rose to 1.6% in 2014 and 1.3% in 2015. In 2008–2012, incidence in tourists visiting Central and West Africa dropped markedly. CONCLUSIONS: Imported malaria is on the rise again in the Netherlands, most notably since 2013. This is mostly due to immigration of asylum seekers from the Horn of Africa. The predominance of P. vivax infection among asylum seekers warrants vigilance in health workers when a migrant presents with fever, as relapses of this type of malaria can occur long after arrival in the Netherlands. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12936-017-1711-5) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users. BioMed Central 2017-02-02 /pmc/articles/PMC5288937/ /pubmed/28148300 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12936-017-1711-5 Text en © The Author(s) 2017 Open AccessThis article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated. |
spellingShingle | Research de Gier, Brechje Suryapranata, Franciska S. T. Croughs, Mieke van Genderen, Perry J. J. Keuter, Monique Visser, Leo G. van Vugt, Michele Sonder, Gerard J. B. Increase in imported malaria in the Netherlands in asylum seekers and VFR travellers |
title | Increase in imported malaria in the Netherlands in asylum seekers and VFR travellers |
title_full | Increase in imported malaria in the Netherlands in asylum seekers and VFR travellers |
title_fullStr | Increase in imported malaria in the Netherlands in asylum seekers and VFR travellers |
title_full_unstemmed | Increase in imported malaria in the Netherlands in asylum seekers and VFR travellers |
title_short | Increase in imported malaria in the Netherlands in asylum seekers and VFR travellers |
title_sort | increase in imported malaria in the netherlands in asylum seekers and vfr travellers |
topic | Research |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5288937/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/28148300 http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s12936-017-1711-5 |
work_keys_str_mv | AT degierbrechje increaseinimportedmalariainthenetherlandsinasylumseekersandvfrtravellers AT suryapranatafranciskast increaseinimportedmalariainthenetherlandsinasylumseekersandvfrtravellers AT croughsmieke increaseinimportedmalariainthenetherlandsinasylumseekersandvfrtravellers AT vangenderenperryjj increaseinimportedmalariainthenetherlandsinasylumseekersandvfrtravellers AT keutermonique increaseinimportedmalariainthenetherlandsinasylumseekersandvfrtravellers AT visserleog increaseinimportedmalariainthenetherlandsinasylumseekersandvfrtravellers AT vanvugtmichele increaseinimportedmalariainthenetherlandsinasylumseekersandvfrtravellers AT sondergerardjb increaseinimportedmalariainthenetherlandsinasylumseekersandvfrtravellers |