Abstract
We inevitably associate malaria with tropical climates where the vector Anopheles mosquitoes are abundant. In 2017, there were an estimated 219 million cases worldwide, predominately in sub-Saharan Africa and India, resulting in 435 000 deaths.1 Often forgotten is that malaria is widely believed to have been formerly endemic to the UK. The last outbreak involving locally acquired cases occurred between 1917 and 1921. Could vector-borne disease pose a threat today? Febrile-like illnesses, probably malarial in origin, were historically common in lowland marshland areas.2 Known variously as ‘marsh fever’, ‘agues’, or ‘tertian fevers’, these illnesses affected areas of low-lying Essex, Sussex, Kent, the Somerset levels, the Yorkshire Holderness, and the Lancashire Ribble Valley.2 These were likely …
Highlights
THE FIRST WORLD WAR: MALARIA VICTORIOUS To break the Western Front deadlock of the First World War, a military front was opened in 1915 in Salonika in the Balkans
An estimated 15 000 to 25 000 such infected troops returned to the UK,[4] many falling ill on their return
With amazing lack of foresight, one camp was situated on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, an area notorious for marshland fevers and mosquito vectors
Summary
THE FIRST WORLD WAR: MALARIA VICTORIOUS To break the Western Front deadlock of the First World War, a military front was opened in 1915 in Salonika in the Balkans. An estimated 15 000 to 25 000 such infected troops returned to the UK,[4] many falling ill on their return. With amazing lack of foresight, one camp was situated on the Isle of Sheppey, Kent, an area notorious for marshland fevers and mosquito vectors. OUTBREAK Large numbers of infected troops, stationed where mosquitoes were abundant, provided a ready source of infection from which an outbreak could become established.
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