EPIDEMIOLOGY OF MALARIA IN THE STATE OF QATAR, 2008-2015

Main Article Content

Elmoubasher Farag
Devendra Bansal
Mohamad Abdul Halim Chehab http://orcid.org/0000-0002-0862-2264
Ayman Al-Dahshan
Mohamed Bala
Nandakumar Ganesan
Yosuf Abdulla Al Abdulla
Mohammed Al Thani
Ali H. Sultan
Hamad Al-Romaihi

Keywords

Malaria, Epidemiology, Qatar

Abstract

Background and Objectives

Imported malaria poses a serious public health problem in Qatar because its population is “naïve” to such infection; where local transmission might lead to serious life-threatening infection and might even trigger epidemics.

Methods

This study is a retrospective review of the imported malaria cases in Qatar reported by the malaria surveillance program at the Ministry of Public Health (MoPH), during the period between January 2008 and December 2015. All cases were imported and underwent parasitological confirmation through microscopy.

Results

A total of 4092 malaria cases were reported during 2008-2015 in Qatar. The demographic features of the imported cases show that the majority of cases were males (93%), non-Qatari(99.6%), and aged 15 to 44 years(82.1%). Moreover, P. vivax was found to be the main etiologic agent accounting for more than three-quarters (78.7%) of the imported cases. In addition, almost a third (33.1%) of the cases were reported during the months of July, August, and September.

Conclusions

Imported malaria in Qatar has witnessed an increase during the past 7 years, despite a long period of constant reduction; where the people most affected were adult male migrants from endemic countries. Many challenges need to be overcome to prevent the reintroduction of malaria into the country.

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