[home] [faecal parasites] [blood parasites] [blood methods] [venue dates] [getting there]

3.3 billion people, 50% of the world's population, are at risk of malaria.

About 250 million people develop malaria every year.

Close to 1 million people die as a result, most of them children.

An African child has on average between 1.6 and 5.4 episodes of malaria/year

Every 30 seconds a child dies from malaria

(WHO 2009)

http://www.who.int/features/factfiles/malaria/en/ 

Improved means and cheaper travel has made the world a smaller place. More and more people are travelling further afield to exotic countries and encountering parasitic and infectious diseases unknown or rare in their own country of residence. 

Climate change, the effects?   There may be a net increase in the geographic range of potential transmission of malaria and dengue; two vector-borne infections each of which currently impinge on 40-50% of the world population.   Diagnostic laboratories may therefore see an increase in the number of imported cases of malaria found in travellers returning from tropical destinations. On the other hand, warmer summer weather may well be good for the UK's economy, with more tourists and better wine-producing conditions.  The prospect of climate change begs the question,  will the UK ever return to the Malarious Middle Ages? Both British species of Anopheline mosquitoes (An. plumbeus & An. atroparvus) are capable of transmitting P. vivax and P. falciparum. A rise in summer temperatures in the UK would increase the likelihood of completion of the sporogonic cycle in gametocyte-fed wild Anopheline species, but a reduction in summer rainfall would reduce the numbers of wet tree holes in which these mosquitoes could breed. 

As for the current trend for bitterly cold winters in the UK..... where could a poor mosquito find a happy home in order to survive the freezing conditions?

"Rising temperatures and increased rainfall will result in mosquitoes being found in abundance in cooler climates, where there is little knowledge of and resistance to the diseases they carry." http://www.wpro.who.int/media_centre/press_releases/pr20080704.htm 

Read the WHO fact sheet on Climate Change and Health.

http://www.who.int/mediacentre/factsheets/fs266/en/ 

For the year 2011 The Malaria Reference Laboratory, London received 1677 notifications of malaria imported to the UK. Of these,  1149 were identified as Plasmodium falciparum, 4 as P. falciparum + another plasmodia species,  416 as Plasmodium vivax, 77 as Plasmodium ovale and 31 as Plasmodium malariae.  

See the Health Protection Agency (HPA) webpage here. http://www.hpa.org.uk/Topics/InfectiousDiseases/InfectionsAZ/Malaria/EpidemiologicalData/malaEpi10CasesandDeaths/     

 8 deaths were reported among the 1677 cases.   Any Haematologist can be called upon to diagnose malaria in their own laboratory. Patients with other tropical parasitic infections such as filariasis, trypanosomiasis and leishmaniasis may also present in general hospitals.

Participation in the UK NEQAS Parasitology Teaching Programme can help to increase familiarity with a range of parasites and promote self-confidence in the accuracy of personal performance and laboratory reports.