Six cases of malaria have been reported in Greece since June. None of the victims – five Greek adults and one child – had any history of travel to a country where the disease is commonplace.
The cases occurred in the Laconia region of the southern Peloponnese and on Euboea, a large island north of Athens. Intensified mosquito control programmes have been established, while awareness has also been raised among doctors and local residents.
“These areas are not tourist areas,” says Androula Pavli from the Department of Travel Medicine of the Hellenic Centre for Disease Prevention and Control in Athens. “For the general tourist I would say there’s a very negligible risk,” she tells us.
The affected parts of the country are agricultural wetlands. “These areas are inhabited by a lot of illegal migrants,” Pavli says, “who come from countries on the Indian sub-continent such as Afghanistan and Pakistan”. Pavli states that because many of these farm workers do not have valid documents, it has not been possible to establish whether they are the source of recent outbreaks.
Professor David Hill, director of the Health Protection Agency’s National Travel Health Network and Centre, said: “The risk to holiday makers of catching malaria while in Greece remains extremely low, so there is no need to take anti-malarial medication when visiting this country, but travelers should take measures to prevent being bitten.
“We already advise people travelling to Greece to prevent insect bites to protect against another mosquito-borne infection caused by West Nile virus,” he added. “This can cause a nervous system disease and over 200 cases were reported in Greece last year. The recent cases of malaria in Greece reinforce the importance of taking precautions against being bitten while on holiday.”
Malaria is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites. When a mosquito infected with malaria parasites (plasmodia) bites, it injects the parasites into the body. A single bite from a mosquito is enough for the infection to spread.
Most of malaria cases stem from the area of Evrotas, Lakonia in the Peloponnese, in southern Greece and from areas close to the city of Chalkida, Evoia, in the east of the country.
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