A campaign to warn travellers to the dangers of malaria has been launched this week, as cases of the disease being brought back to the UK rise fast.
According to The Guardian, some 2,000 people returned to the UK with malaria, and 16 people died from the disease in 2003 – double the number for the previous year.
The awareness campaign, being sponsored by GlaxoSmithKline, begins today with an exhibition at the Natural History Museum in London, entitled Just One Bite.
The newspaper reports that, of five million UK travellers who visited malarial regions last year, some two thirds did not seek travel health advice.
George Kassianos, of the UK Malaria Guidelines Committee, is quoted as saying: “What we are seeing far too often is people not taking anti-malarial medicine, taking the wrong medicine for the country they are visiting, or not completing the course for the prescribed time after leaving the malarious area.”
Report by Tim Gillett, News From Abroad Ltd www.newsfromabroad.com
