High incidence of Plasmodium vivax malaria in newly arrived Eritrean refugees in Sweden since May 2014

K Sondén; E Castro; L Trönnberg; C Stenström; A Tegnell; A Färnert

doi:10.2807/1560-7917.ES2014.19.35.20890

Rapid communications Open Access

Like 0

Download

High incidence of Plasmodium vivax malaria in newly arrived Eritrean refugees in Sweden since May 2014
K Sondén¹ , E Castro² , L Trönnberg² , C Stenström³ , A Tegnell² , A Färnert ^1,4
View Affiliations Hide Affiliations

Affiliations: ¹ Infectious Diseases Unit, Department of Medicine Solna, Karolinska Institutet, Solna, Sweden ² The Public Health Agency of Sweden, Stockholm, Sweden ³ Department of Clinical Microbiology, Karolinska University Hospital, Solna, Sweden ⁴ Department of Infectious Diseases, Karolinska University Hospital, Solna, Sweden

Correspondence:
A Färnert
anna.farnert ki.se
View Citation Hide Citation

Citation style for this article: Sondén K, Castro E, Trönnberg L, Stenström C, Tegnell A, Färnert A. High incidence of Plasmodium vivax malaria in newly arrived Eritrean refugees in Sweden since May 2014. Euro Surveill. 2014;19(35):pii=20890. https://doi.org/10.2807/1560-7917.ES2014.19.35.20890 Received: 15 Aug 2014

Previous Article
Table of Contents
Next Article

Abstract

Since May 2014, an increase in Plasmodium vivax malaria has been observed in Sweden. As of 31 August 2014, 105 malaria cases have been reported in newly arrived Eritrean refugees, 84 of them P. vivax. The patients were mainly young men and reported migration through Ethiopia and/or Sudan. Severe anaemia and long symptom duration reflect inadequate healthcare during migration. Countries currently hosting Eritrean refugees need to consider P. vivax malaria in this group of migrants.