Loading...
Plasmodium vivax is responsible for up to 300 million new cases of malaria annually and is the most common cause of this disease outside of Africa. Mortality is generally thought to be low. Vivax malaria (like illness caused by the much-rarer Plasmodium ovale) can remain dormant for months or years, and travel-associated disease offers a good opportunity to study such latency.
Analysis of data from public health and travel registries in the U.K. for 1987 through 2013 revealed 50,187 cases of malaria, 12,769 (25.4%) of which were due to P. vivax. Most patients with vivax malaria were born outside the U.K. — primarily India and Pakistan — and most had visited family and friends in these countries. Only 16.5% of cases occurred in tourists and b…