title: Airport malaria: report of four cases in Tunisia.
abstract: Four cases of airport malaria were notified for the first time in Tunisia during the summer of 2013. All patients were neighbours living within 2 km of Tunis International Airport. They had no history of travel to malarious countries, of blood transfusion or of intravenous drug use. Although malaria transmission had ceased in Tunisia since 1980, autochthonous infection by local Anopheles mosquitoes was initially considered. However, this diagnostic hypothesis was ruled out due to negative entomological survey and the absence of additional cases.All cases were caused by Plasmodium falciparum. Clinical presentation was severe (important thrombocytopaenia and parasitaemia), because of relatively important delay in diagnosis (average of seven days). This indicates the need to consider malaria while examining airport employees or people living near international airports presenting with fever of unknown origin. It also stresses the need for effective spraying of aircrafts coming from malarious areas.
authors.affiliation: Laboratoire de Parasitologie-Mycologie, Tunis, Tunisia. emnasiala99@gmail.com.
authors.forename: Emna
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Siala
authors.forename: Dhikrayet
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Gamara
authors.forename: Kalthoum
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Kallel
authors.forename: Jabeur
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Daaboub
authors.forename: Faiçal
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Zouiten
authors.forename: Sandrine
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Houzé
authors.forename: Aïda
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bouratbine
authors.forename: Karim
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Aoun
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D059028:Airports; D000818:Animals; D004781:Environmental Exposure; D006801:Humans; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000473:pathology* / Q000635:transmission; D008297:Male; D014416:Tunisia; D055815:Young Adult