High prevalence of antibodies against circumsporozoite antigen of Plasmodium falciparum without development of symptomatic malaria in travelers returning from sub-Saharan Africa.
Circumsporozoite (CS) antibodies, indicating that falciparum malaria infection has occurred, have been shown to be reliable indicators of transmission in malaria-endemic areas. In order to estimate the actual rate of malaria infection, the prevalence of CS antibodies in serum was investigated by ELISA in a selected population of travelers returning from sub-Saharan Africa without any clinical sign of malaria. Sera from 39 (48.8%) of 80 individual travelers were positive, while this was only true for 8 (5.6%) of 142 travelers who took package tours. The risk of malaria infection was therefore 8.7 times greater for individual tourists than for package-tour travelers. These data demonstrate the importance of adequate malaria chemoprophylaxis in nonimmune travelers to areas with highly endemic disease.
Jelinek
T
T
Department of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, University of Munich, Germany.
Löscher
T
T
Nothdurft
H D
HD
D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D017954:Africa South of the Sahara / Q000453:epidemiology; D000368:Aged; D000818:Animals; D000953:Antigens, Protozoan / Q000276:immunology*; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007223:Infant; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000635:transmission; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000276:immunology*; D015995:Prevalence; D016036:Seroepidemiologic Studies; D013997:Time Factors; D014195:Travel / Q000145:classification
D000953:Antigens, Protozoan