A Preliminary Studyon The Risk Factorsfor Imported Malaria,Taiwan,2006–2016

The development of international travel has made it difficult to avoid the risk of imported malaria in Taiwan. Imported malaria may cause secondary local transmission, which could lead to the re-establishment of endemic malaria, undermining the achievement of malaria elimination in Taiwan. Therefore, the purpose of this study is toanalyze the imported malaria case-related data, to provide deeper understanding of the risk associated with imported malaria cases in Taiwan and to formulate policies for the prevention and control of malaria.We collected data includingsex, age, nationality, malariaspecies, travel purposeand country visited for each imported malaria casereported to the TaiwanNational Notifiable Disease Surveillance Systemduring2006 to 2016and carried out descriptive analysis.Furthermore, we combinedthe data of malaria species detected and travel purpose with the data of country visitedto findrisks associated withacquiringmalaria while traveling abroad. Of the 172imported malaria casesreported during 2006 to 2016, we found that Taiwanese entrepreneursand people dispatchedoverseasto Africa and Southeast Asiamight be the main source of imported malariacases. Also, the predominant malaria speciesof imported malaria casesfrom Africawas Plasmodium falciparum,whereas from Southeast Asia was Plasmodium vivax. As a result, we recommendstrengthening health education regardinguse ofchemoprophylaxisand personal protective measuresfor all travelers, especially Taiwanese entrepreneurs and people dispatchedoverseasto Africa and Southeast Asia, to effectively prevent theimportation ofmalaria.Finally, we can apply the method of this study to other imported vector-borne diseases for formulatingepidemic prevention and controlpolicies.