Re-Emergence of Malaria in Malaysia: A Review Article

Abstract

Malaria is a global health problem, affecting millions of people annually. According to the World Malaria Report 2015, there were 214 million new cases of malaria globally (range 149 - 303 million) with an estimated mortality of 438,000 (range 236,000 - 635,000). The vast majority of the cases occur in the WHO African Region (88%), with the rest being in the WHO South East Asian Region (10%) and the WHO Eastern Mediterranean Region (2%). Malaysia is experiencing sporadic outbreaks of malaria due to influx of foreign workers from neighboring countries and failure to take antimalarial prophylaxis amongst travellers. The aim of the review is to increase the awareness among the healthcare professionals on the increasing prevalence of malaria especially among migrant workers. Currently our health screening program for migrant workers does not include screening for malaria.