Malaria among migrants in a university hospital in Colombia during 2018: A case series

Abstract

Imported malaria has increased in Colombia since 2015 and has been attributed to migrants coming from Venezuela. We present a series of malaria cases, nested in a retrospective cross-sectional study between 2017 and 2018, aimed at calculating the prevalence of medical diseases among immigrants in a University Hospital in Colombia. Among 154 immigrants admitted for medical causes between 2017 and 2018, 8 were diagnosed with malaria, all due to Plasmodium vivax. Of these, seven had uncomplicated malaria, five had a previous history of malaria, one was critically ill, but none died. We highlight that, similar to other case series of imported malaria, Latin American migrants were young, with similar clinical profiles, having a low proportion of severe cases, and P. vivax was the most frequent cause.