Malaria Hyperendemicity and Risk for Artemisinin Resistance among Illegal Gold Miners, French Guiana.

Vincent Pommier De Santi,Stéphane Pelleau,Eric Legrand,Christophe Nguyen,Mathieu Nacher,Lise Musset,Sébastien Briolant,Félix Djossou,Hervé Bogreau,Georges Hyvert,Nicolas Barthes

doi:10.3201/eid2205.151957

Vincent Pommier De Santi, Stéphane Pelleau + Show 9 more

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3201/eid2205.151957

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Abstract

To assess the prevalence of malaria among illegal gold miners in the French Guiana rainforest, we screened 205 miners during May–June 2014. Malaria prevalence was 48.3%; 48.5% of cases were asymptomatic. Patients reported self-medication with artemisinin-based combination therapy. Risk for emergence and spread of artemisinin resistance among gold miners in the rainforest is high.

Highlights

To assess the prevalence of malaria among illegal gold miners in the French Guiana rainforest, we screened 205 miners during May–June 2014
We describe the results of the cross-sectional study conducted to assess the epidemiologic situation of malaria
Diagnostic tests associating the malaria rapid diagnosis test (RDT) (SD Bioline Malaria Ag Pf/Pan; Standard Diagnostics, Inc., Giheung-gu, South Korea) and thin blood films were performed in the field

Summary

Malaria Hyperendemicity and Risk for Artemisinin Resistance among

Vincent Pommier de Santi, Félix Djossou, Nicolas Barthes, Hervé Bogreau, Georges Hyvert, Christophe Nguyen, Stéphane Pelleau, Eric Legrand, Lise Musset, Mathieu Nacher, Sébastien Briolant. To assess the prevalence of malaria among illegal gold miners in the French Guiana rainforest, we screened 205 miners during May–June 2014. Military deployments at illegal gold mining sites have resulted in several outbreaks and increased incidence of malaria in French forces [1,2,3,4], which suggests high transmission levels in those areas. All patients came from the illegal gold mining site of Eau Claire (3°36′00′′N, 53°34′60′′W) (Figure 1). Given these problems, French health authorities decided to provide primary medical care in the field and to assess the sanitary situation in Eau Claire. 66.0% (135/205) persons had traveled to >1 area outside Eau Claire: 54.1% (111/205) to Suriname (among those, 60.0% had traveled there >2 times); 22.4% (46/205) to Brazil; and 18.5% (38/205) to the main cities in the malaria-free area along the French Guiana coast (Figure 2)

RDT and thin blood film

Findings

Conclusions