Tourists urged to take precautions against deadly malaria

TRAVEL experts yesterday urged sun seekers jetting off to exotic destinations to make sure they get anti-malaria treatment.

GPs have reported a 60% rise this year in the numbers of people returning from abroad with the potentially fatal disease.

Yesterday, Kathryn Thomas, presenter of RTÉ television’s No Frontiers travel show, launched a “It Only Takes One Bite” campaign to persuade holidaymakers, as well as business travellers, to seek treatment before they jet off.

She said: “Over the last five years, I have visited a host of countries where malaria is endemic.

“Until I’d seen somebody suffer from malaria, I didn’t realise how extremely deadly it is, yet it’s so simple to take the appropriate malaria preventative measures.

“It is a serious disease and I earnestly urge anyone travelling to such areas to seek medical advice and to take precautions to minimise their risk.”

Malaria is prevalent in Africa, Central and South America, the Indian sub-continent and south-east Asia.

Visitors to countries like Egypt, Mauritius, Mexico, Thailand and Peru are recommended to take anti-malaria treatment.

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by the Plasmodium parasite, and is transmitted to humans by infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.

The insects feed on human blood and their bite injects the malaria parasite into the blood. The parasite multiplies in the body, causing sufferers to fall ill.

Dr Graham Fry of the Tropical Medical Bureau said travellers could catch the illness from just one bite from an infected mosquito.

But he said too few people were aware of the risks when travelling to malaria hot-spots or were content to run the risk of catching the illness.

He said: “So far this year, there have been 36 cases of malaria notified in Ireland and this is likely to climb to 100 cases or more before the year end.

“There seems to be a direct link between the rising incidence in cases and the poor uptake of anti-malaria treatments, yet significant developments have been made in this area in recent times.

“There really is no good reason to remain unprotected when travelling in a malaria zone,” he said.

New treatments require travellers to start taking malaria tablets two days before departure and then finish the course seven days after returning home.

Dr Fry also said migrants from malaria hotspots were also at risk from foreign travel because their immunity to the disease would be low within six months of coming to live in Ireland.