Risk factors for UK Plasmodium falciparum cases

Pinsent, Amy, Read, Jonathan M, Griffin, Jamie T, Smith, Valerie, Gething, Peter W, Ghani, Azra C, Pasvol, Geoffrey and Hollingsworth, Deirdre (2014) 'Risk factors for UK Plasmodium falciparum cases'. Malaria Journal, Vol 13, e298.

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Abstract

Background

An increasing proportion of malaria cases diagnosed in UK residents with a history of travel to malaria endemic areas are due to Plasmodium falciparum.

Methods

In order to identify travellers at most risk of acquiring malaria a proportional hazards model was used to estimate the risk of acquiring malaria stratified by purpose of travel and age whilst adjusting for entomological inoculation rate (EIR) and duration of stay in endemic countries.

Results

Travellers visiting friends and relatives and business travellers were found to have significantly higher hazard of acquiring malaria (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) relative to that of holiday makers 7.4, 95% CI 6.4–8.5, p < 0. 0001 and HR 3.4, 95% CI 2.9-3.8, p < 0. 0001, respectively). All age-groups were at lower risk than children aged 0–15 years.

Conclusions

These estimates of the increased risk for business travellers and those visiting friends and relatives should be used to inform programmes to improve awareness of the risks of malaria when travelling.

Item Type:	Article
Additional Information:	The electronic version of this article is the complete one and can be found online at: http://www.malariajournal.com/content/13/1/298 This article is part of the series Travellers' malaria.
Subjects:	QX Parasitology > Protozoa > QX 135 Plasmodia WA Public Health > Preventive Medicine > WA 108 Preventive health services. Preventive medicine. Travel Medicine. WC Communicable Diseases > Tropical and Parasitic Diseases > WC 750 Malaria
Faculty: Department:	Clinical Sciences & International Health > Clinical Sciences Department
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):	https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2875-13-298
Depositing User:	Lynn Roberts-Maloney
Date Deposited:	27 Mar 2015 10:46
Last Modified:	06 Feb 2018 13:09
URI:	https://archive.lstmed.ac.uk/id/eprint/5046

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