Travel industry should highlight malaria prophylaxis

doi:10.1136/bmj.a1027

Published 31 July 2008, doi:10.1136/bmj.a1027
Cite this as: BMJ 2008;337:a1027

Letters

Imported malaria

Travel industry should highlight malaria prophylaxis

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

Smith et al reported an increase in cases of imported malariain the UK.¹ We recently reviewed travel brochures from 27 Britishtour operators which featured holidays to malarious Africancountries.² Of the 27, in only 12 did we find any mention ofmalaria or the advisability of malaria prophylaxis. Only fourbrochures mentioned malaria on the same page as a holiday toa recognised malarious region.

Such literature would be an ideal place to target advice totravellers, and our results show that this opportunity is beingmissed.

More generally, the findings imply that the travel industryis failing to take the risk of malaria to travellers sufficientlyseriously. We note that there is no specific guidance givenby the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) to tour operatorsregarding malaria.³ Also, the airline industry trade association,the International Air Transport Association (IATA), advisesmember airlines on disinfection of . . . [Full text of this article]

Edward Green, specialist registrar, infectious diseases¹, Rohit Bazaz, registrar, infectious diseases¹, Steve T Green, professor of international health¹

¹ Department of Infectious Diseases and Tropical Medicine, E Floor, Royal Hallamshire Hospital, Sheffield S10 2JF

edward.green@sth.nhs.uk

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