WEDNESDAY, March 28 (HealthDay News) -- Tourists over age 65 who
visit malaria-infested regions are nearly 10 times more likely to
die from the disease than those ages 18 to 35, a new study
says.
The analysis of 20 years of data from more than 25,000 U.K.
patients also found that the malaria death rate is particularly
high among people who've traveled to Gambia, West Africa.
The risk of dying from malaria, an infection carried by
mosquitoes, increased with age, and the death rate for those over
age 65 was 4.6 percent. There were no deaths in children younger
than age 5, according to the study published online March 28 in the
British Medical Journal.
The researchers also found that tourists were more than nine
times more likely to die from malaria than people of African
heritage who traveled to see family or friends -- 3 percent vs.
0.32 percent.
This decreased death risk among people of African heritage may
be due to early exposure to malaria, or to greater awareness of the
symptoms and a tendency to seek medical help earlier, the study
authors said in a journal news release.
The overall death rate from malaria for people who visited
Gambia was especially high (3.9 percent) compared to those who
visited other countries in West Africa (0.4 percent). Among
tourists, the death rate was 6 percent for those who visited Gambia
compared with 1.4 percent for those who visited other West African
countries.
Travel to malaria-infected regions is increasing, and the U.K.
has one of the highest rates of imported malaria in the world,
according to the researchers at the London School of Hygiene and
Tropical Medicine and the University of Oxford.
They said doctors need to make travelers aware that malaria is
common, possibly fatal and requires early diagnosis. Doctors must
stress to travelers the importance of taking anti-malaria drugs and
of seeing a doctor immediately if they have a fever when they
return home.
Each year, 250 million cases of malaria occur worldwide,
resulting in more than 800,000 related deaths, the release
said.
More information
The American Academy of Family Physicians has more about
malaria.