Africa visitors 'importing malaria'

People being careless with their health while visiting friends and relatives in Africa are importing a deadly form of malaria into the UK, a study reveals.

Between 1987 and 2006 the number of reported cases in Britain of infection by Plasmodium falciparum increased 32% from 5,120 to 6,753.

The organism, mostly found in sub-Saharan Africa, is the most deadly of the four protozoan parasites that cause malaria.

Worldwide, it is responsible for 80% of malaria infections and 90% of deaths.

Over the same 20-year period British cases of malaria infection by the parasite Plasmodium vivax, which is endemic in Asia and rarely fatal, fell from 3,954 to 1,244.

A total of 39,300 cases of malaria were reported in the UK between 1987 and 2006, said researchers from the Health Protection Agency (HPA).

Some occurred among foreign visitors to the UK. But the vast majority - 20,488 - involved British residents bringing the infection back with them after travelling abroad.

Of these malaria victims, 64.5% had been visiting friends and relatives in Africa or southern Asia.

Imported cases were heavily concentrated in communities of people who made frequent domestic trips to West Africa.

The study, published in the online version of the British Medical Journal, showed that only 42% of British travellers to places where malaria is rife took any form of protective medication.

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