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Malaria in British military personnel deployed to Sierra Leone: a case series
  1. Oliver Quantick1,
  2. R Howlett-Shipley2,
  3. S Roughton3 and
  4. D Ross4
  1. 1AMD—Public Health Registrar, Camberley, UK
  2. 2Navy Command Headquarters—Consultant Public Health Physician, Portsmouth, UK
  3. 3AMD—Consultant Public Health Physician, Camberley, UK
  4. 4RAMC—Health Unit, AMD, Camberley, UK
  1. Correspondence to Maj Oliver Quantick, AMD—Public Health Registrar, Camberley, UK; Oliverquantick{at}gmail.com

Abstract

From December 2014 to April 2015, seven cases of malaria were seen in 1530 military personnel deployed to Sierra Leone on Operation GRITROCK in response to the West African Ebola outbreak, despite predeployment briefings, prescription of chemoprophylactic agents and bite prevention measures. The cases have prompted discussion regarding the efficacy of current measures and how to prevent future cases in deployed military personnel or more widely, those working in malaria-risk environments. All of the cases have made a full recovery and returned to work. We discuss what can be learnt concerning the choice of chemoprophylactic agent and whether anything further be added to standard operating procedures regarding bite prevention and treatment of cases.

  • PREVENTIVE MEDICINE
  • PUBLIC HEALTH

https://doi.org/10.1136/jramc-2016-000627

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    Footnotes

    • Contributors OQ planned and wrote the main content of this article. RH-S provided follow-up details for several of the cases with postdeployment patient interviews. SR provided information and case details of the later cases. DR helped to provide overall support and SME advice regarding DNBI in the deployed force and current malaria policy advice.

    • Competing interests None declared.

    • Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.