Nosocomial malaria

A nocosomial malaria infection is an infection with a Plasmodium parasite that has been acquired in a hospital or other healthcare facility. It's hardly a surprise that, in a hospital where patients with all sorts of ailments are living as a group, infections might spread from one patient to the other.

[A Plasmodium from the saliva of a female mosquito moving across a mosquito cell]

Infections are spread to any susceptible patient in the clinical setting by a variety of means. According to the scientific literature, the following modes of transmission should be taken into account in the investigation of hospital-acquired malaria: [1] Parenteral introduction of blood that contains parasite-infected erythrocytes from one infectious individual to another patient during healthcare procedures, [2] Blood transfusion, or bone marrow or organ transplant from a malaria-infected patient or [3] Accidental contact of blood containing parasite-infected erythrocytes with an open wound.

Between Januari 2016 and April 2018 a total of six patients with nosocomial malaria have been reported in Germany, Greece, Italy and Spain[1]. Five patients were infected with Plasmodium falciparum, while one had a co-infection with Plasmodium malariae en Plasmodium ovale.

Investigations into the source of these infections revealed that in all six cases the cause was probably a parenteral transmission of blood, infected with Plasmodium spp from malaria patients that where admitted at the same time in the same ward.

Well, only six cases in Europa in more than two years, that isn't a big deal, you might think. It is when you're thinking of making sub-Saharan Africa as your holiday destination. If you do, don't get hurt, because aAs research has shown, prevalence of malaria parasites in blood for transfusion ranged from 6.5 per cent to 74.1 per cent in different study sites[2].

[1] European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control: Rapid risk assessment: Hospital-acquired malaria infections in the European Union – 30 April 2018. See here.
[2] Talia Frenkel Blood transfusions a ‘hidden’ malaria risk on SciDevNet - 26 April 2018. See here.