Unit of Entomology, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
Outbreak Research Team, Institute of Tropical Medicine, Antwerp, Belgium.
Euro Surveill. 2022 Apr;27(16). doi: 10.2807/1560-7917.ES.2022.27.16.2100724.
We report an outbreak investigation of two fatal cases of autochthonous malaria that occurred in Belgium in September 2020. Various hypotheses of the potential source of infection were investigated. The most likely route of transmission was through an infectious exotic mosquito that was imported via the international airport of Brussels or the military airport Melsbroek and infected the cases who lived at 5 km from the airports. Based on genomic analysis of the parasites collected from the two cases, the most likely origin of the was Gabon or Cameroon. Further, the parasites collected from the two Belgian patients were identical by descent, which supports the assumption that the two infections originated from the bite of the same mosquito, during interrupted feeding. Although airport malaria remains a rare event, it has significant implications, particularly for the patient, as delayed or missed diagnosis of the cause of illness often results in complications and mortality. Therefore, to prevent such severe or fatal outcomes, we suggest a number of public health actions including increased awareness among health practitioners, especially those working in the vicinity of airports, and increased surveillance of exotic mosquito species at airports.
我们报告了 2020 年 9 月在比利时发生的两例本地疟疾病例的暴发调查。对感染的潜在来源进行了各种假设。最有可能的传播途径是通过经布鲁塞尔国际机场或梅尔布罗克军事机场输入的传染性外来蚊子感染居住在距离机场 5 公里内的病例。根据从两例病例中采集的寄生虫的基因组分析，最有可能的起源地是加蓬或喀麦隆。此外，从两名比利时患者身上采集的寄生虫在遗传上是相同的，这支持了这样一种假设，即两次感染均源于同一蚊子的叮咬，在中断吸血过程中发生。尽管机场疟疾仍然是一种罕见事件，但它具有重大意义，特别是对患者而言，因为延误或漏诊疾病的病因通常会导致并发症和死亡。因此，为了防止出现此类严重或致命的后果，我们建议采取一些公共卫生措施，包括提高卫生工作者，尤其是在机场附近工作的卫生工作者的认识，以及增加对机场外来蚊子种类的监测。
