The Health Bureau (SSM) announced in a statement that Macau yesterday confirmed its first imported case of malaria this year.
The bureau said it received a report confirming the case from the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre (CHSCJ) on Tuesday.
The bureau identified the patient as a 47-year-old man from the Chinese mainland. He travelled alone to Nigeria, West Africa, for business from April 22 to 28. After returning to the Chinese mainland, he developed symptoms on Wednesday last week, including fever and diarrhoea, the statement said.
Self- medicating did not relieve his symptoms. The patient then entered Macau last Friday and sought medical attention at the public Conde de São Januário Hospital Centre on Monday, where he was diagnosed with malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum*, the statement said, adding that he was admitted to hospital on the same day for further treatment.
Based on the patient’s travel history, the timeline of the symptoms onset, and laboratory test results, according to the statement, the case has been classified as an imported case of malaria.
The statement underlined that the patient remains hospitalised and is in serious condition.
The statement noted that malaria is a vector-borne communicable disease transmitted by infected female Anopheline mosquitoes.
Details in English about malaria can be found at: https://www.chp.gov.hk/en/healthtopics/content/24/30.html.
* Plasmodium falciparum is a unicellular parasite and the most lethal species that causes malaria in humans. It is transmitted through the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito. – Gemini
This 2009 file photo shows an Aedes aegypti mosquito feeding in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. – Photo courtesy of Muhammad Mahdi Karim/Wikimedia Commons
