The need for preventive and curative services for malaria when the military is deployed in endemic overseas territories: a case study and lessons learned

作     者：Sumadhya Deepika Fernando Rahuman Booso Priyani Dharmawardena Arunagirinathan Harintheran Kugapiriyan Raviraj Chaturaka Rodrigo Manjula Danansuriya Rajitha Wickremasinghe 

作者机构：Department of ParasitologyFaculty of MedicineUniversity of Colombo Directorate of Health ServicesSri Lanka Air Force Anti-Malaria CampaignMinistry of Health555/5 Public Health Complex Department of PathologySchool of Medical SciencesUniversity of New South Wales Department of Public HealthFaculty of MedicineUniversity of Kelaniya 

出 版 物：《Military Medical Research》 (军事医学研究（英文版）)

年 卷 期：2018年第5卷第1期

页      面：13-18页

学科分类：1006[医学-中西医结合] 1002[医学-临床医学] 10[医学] 100602[医学-中西医结合临床] 

基　　金：funded by National Science Foundation of Sri Lanka(Grant No.RG/2014/HS/03) 

主　　题：Imported malaria Security forces Sri Lanka Central African Republic Chemoprophylaxis 

摘      要：Background: Sri Lanka has been free from indigenous malaria since November 2012 and received the WHO certificate for malaria-free status in September 2016. Due to increased global travel, imported malaria cases continue to be reported in the country. Military personnel returning home from international peace-keeping missions in malaria endemic countries represent a key risk group in terms of imported malaria. The present study intended to characterize the potential causes of a malaria outbreak among the Sri Lankan security forces personnel deployed in the Central African Republic(CAR).Methods: Data were collected from a cross-sectional survey distributed among Sri Lankan Air Force personnel who had returned from United Nations peace-keeping missions in the CAR region. A pre-tested questionnaire was used for the data collection, and focus group discussions were also ***: One hundred twenty male Air Force personnel were interviewed(out of a group of 122 officers and airmen). All participants were deployed in the CAR for 14 months and were aware of the existence of chemoprophylaxis against malaria. The majority of the subjects(92.5%, 111/120) also knew that prophylaxis should be started prior to departure. However, the regular use of chemoprophylaxis was reported by only 61.7%(74/120) of the sample. Overall, 30.8% of the participants(37/120) had 44 symptomatic episodes of malaria during deployment, and one person succumbed to severe malaria. All cases were associated with noncompliance with ***: Better coordination with overseas healthcare services and the establishment of directly observed chemoprophylaxis may help to avoid similar outbreaks in the future.