chemoprophylaxis

Primaquine should be strongly considered for nonpregnant, G6PD-nondeficient patients traveling to vivax-endemic areas of Latin America, and it has the added benefit of being the only drug to protect against malaria relapses.

We describe a case of diarrhea and a positive stool assay for C. difficile in a returning traveler, and review available literature.

The cost-benefit analysis identified that chemoprophylaxis use was not a cost-effective policy for travellers to Thailand or the Amazon region of Brazil, but was cost-effective for travel to West Africa and for those staying longer than 45 days in India and Indonesia.

Two Australian blood donors were diagnosed with relapsing Plasmodium vivax malaria 5 and 15 months, respectively, after their most recent travel to a malaria-endemic country.

Commentary on:
Jacquerioz FA, Croft AM . Drugs for preventing malaria in travellers. Cochrane Database Syst Rev 2009:CD006491.

Interesting paper on the determinants of prophylaxis among French soldiers during missions in Africa.

Further work is required to ascertain whether ease of use and compliance may be important factors in the outcomes associated with malariachemoprophylaxis.

Malaria chemoprophylaxis compliance is suboptimal among French soldiers despite the availability of free malaria chemoprophylaxis and repeated health education before, during and after deployments to malaria endemic areas.