Since 1969, 63 cases of airport malaria have been reported in Western Europe, 24 of which occurred in France. Most were due to Plasmodium falciparum. In 1994, 7 cases occurred in and around Roissy Charles de Gaulle airport (CDG), showing 4 types of contamination: among employees working on airstrips or opening containers, among residents living near the airport, among people living at some distance from the airport after a secondary transport of vectors, and by vectors transported in luggage. In-flight or stop-over infection is not considered as airport malaria. The infective anophelines originated from airports where malaria transmission occurs, mostly in subsaharan Africa. A tentative list is given taking into account aerial traffic with France. Surveys in the airports of Dakar (Senegal), Cotonou (Benin), Abidjan (Cote d'Ivoire) and Yaoundé (Cameroun) found potential vectors in all of these from July to September. After 1994, the Contrôle Sanitaire aux Frontières (CSF) in charge at CDG concentrated its efforts on the flights at risk, as well as information and sensitization of airline companies, which resulted in 73% and 87% of the flights at risk being properly disinsected in 1995 and 1996. Despite pyrethroid resistance in Anopheles gambiae s.s. in West Africa, the efficacy of aircraft spraying with permethrin aerosols is still acceptable. However, surveillance of resistance should be improved and search for nonpyrethroid insecticides suitable for aircraft strongly encouraged.

During the summer 1999, four clustered cases of airport malaria were observed in France. The cases ’ analysis revealed that airport malaria, which is a rare disease whose diagnosis is difficult, can be observed outside occupations at risk, in people livin

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Clinical and biological pitfalls that lead to incorrect or delayed diagnoses of airport malaria are described based on 7 cases reported from the Paris region in the summer of 1994. We also report the outcome and the epidemiological features of these patients.

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