Research

Major variations in malaria exposure of travellers in rural areas: an entomological cohort study in western Côte d'Ivoire

Eve Orlandi-Pradines¹ , Christophe Rogier² , Bernard Koffi³ , Fanny Jarjaval¹ , Melissa Bell¹ , Vanessa Machault¹ , Christophe Pons⁴ , Romain Girod⁵ , Jean-Paul Boutin⁶ and Frédéric Pagès¹

¹  Unité d'Entomologie Médicale – Unité mixte de Recherche 6236, Institut de Recherche biomédicale des Armées-antenne de Marseille, Institut de Médecine Tropicale du Service de Santé des Armées (IMTSSA), Allée du médecin colonel Eugène Jamot, Parc du Pharo, BP 60109, 13262 Marseille Cedex 07, France

²  Unité de Recherche en Biologie et Epidémiologie Parasitaires – Unité mixte de Recherche 6236, Institut de Recherche biomédicale des Armées-antenne de Marseille, IMTSSA, 13262 Marseille Cedex 07, France

³  CEMV Université de Bouaké, 27 BP 529, Abidjan Cedex 27, Côte d'Ivoire

⁴  Service de santé du premier régiment de chasseurs parachutistes, 09100 Pamiers, France

⁵  Unité d'entomologie médicale, Institut Pasteur de la Guyane, 23 avenue Pasteur, BP 6010, 97306 Cayenne Cedex, Guyane Française

⁶  Département d'épidémiologie et de santé publique sud, Institut de Recherche biomédicale des Armées-antenne de Marseille, IMTSSA, 13262 Marseille Cedex 07, France

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Malaria Journal 2009, 8:171doi:10.1186/1475-2875-8-171

Published:	28 July 2009

Abstract

Background

Malaria remains a major threat, to both travellers and military personnel deployed to endemic areas. The recommendations for travellers given by the World Health Organization is based on the incidence of malaria in an area and do not take the degree of exposure into account. The aim of this article is to evaluate the exposure of travellers by entomologic methods, which are the commonly used measures of the intensity of malaria transmission.

Methods

From February 2004 to June 2004, five groups of 30 military personnel were stationed in up to 10 sites in western Côte d'Ivoire, from one week to several months. Adult mosquitoes were collected by human landing catches at each site during the five months and the level of exposure to malaria transmission of each group was estimated.

Results

The level of transmission varied from one site to another one from less than one to approximately more than 100 infective bites per month. In the majority of sites, at least two anopheline species were involved in transmission. The cumulative EIR over the study period varied according to the groups from 29 infected bites per person/per mission to 324.

Conclusion

The level of malaria transmission and malaria risk varies widely (varying by a factor of eleven) between groups of travellers travelling in the same region and at the same time. Physicians involved in travel medicine or supporting expatriated populations or refugees should consider this heterogeneity and emphasize the importance of combining appropriate measures, such as chemoprophylaxis and protective measures against mosquitoes.