Pitfalls in the Diagnosis of Airport Malaria. Seven Cases Observed in the Paris Area in 1994

Abstract

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.

Two cases of airport-associated falciparum malaria in Frankfurt am Main, Germany, October 2019

“…In our opinion, the autochthonous transmission of malaria parasites in central Europe remains highly unlikely. In the two severely ill cases described here, the time from symptom onset until the final diagnosis was long (9 and 12 days), a fact which has also been previously reported in airport malaria [13,14]. This circumstance demonstrates that it is crucial to consider malaria in patients who have not visited an endemic area, as a differential diagnosis if the clinical symptoms are coherent and there is a plausible mode of exposure, e.g.…”

Paludisme d’aéroport

“…En France, le premier cas de paludisme des aéroports a été diagnostiqué, rétrospectivement, en 1969 [5]. Jusqu'en 2007, 28 cas ont été recensés en France et plusieurs études ont été publiées sur le sujet [1,4,[6][7][8][9][10]. Sur ces 28 cas, le diagnostic d'espèce a mis en évidence P. falciparum dans 25 cas, une infection à P. vivax, une co-infection à P. falciparum + P. ovale et une co-infection P. falciparum + P. malariae.…”

Fever in the Returning Traveler, Part One: A Methodological Approach to Initial Evaluation☆

“…10 Malaria has been documented in passengers whose aircraft had layovers at airports in endemic regions. 11 Reliance on automated differentials for routine complete blood counts has led to delayed and missed diagnoses when the disease was not suspected. [12][13][14] Similarly, the diagnosis might be problematic in smaller hospitals where technologists might not recognize the parasites unless sent a specific blood smear for malaria; additionally, such facilities might not be able to speciate the parasite or determine the parasite burden even if the correct diagnosis is made.…”

“…10 Malaria has been documented in passengers whose aircraft had layovers at airports in endemic regions. 11 Reliance on automated differentials for routine complete blood counts has led to delayed and missed diagnoses when the disease was not suspected. 12 –14…”