Malaria maps-background
What is the aim?
Malaria maps are created to visualize the malaria risk in different regions and should be used in combination with the detailed descriptions of the malaria regions mentioned per country.
How are malaria maps created?
The malaria maps are created based on the worst case scenario of the Annual Falciparum Incidence (AFI) and Annual Vivax Incidence (AVI) of the last three years published by WHO in the Malaria world report. These incidences reflect the number of autochthonous confirmed new cases from malaria registered in a specific year, expressed per 1000 individuals under surveillance for a geographic area.
With these figures rough malaria maps are created, and then finetuned. This process is done in collaboration with the authorities/working groups making pretravel guidelines of Swiss, Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium.
Definitions and recommendations
| Autochthonous cases per 1000 inhabitants | Colour | Risk | Malariaprophylaxis |
| 0 | White | No |
No |
|
AFI between 0 and 1 or AVI ≤ 10 |
Pale pink | Low | Mosquito bite prevention |
| AFI between 1 and 10 or AVI > 10 | Orange | Moderate |
Mosquito bite prevention Chemoprophylaxis for people with increased risk |
| AFI > 10 | Red | High |
Mosquito bite prevention AND Chemoprophylaxis |
| Purple | Seasonal |
Rainy season: mosquito bite prevention AND Chemoprophylaxis Dry season: mosquito bite prevention Chemoprophylaxis or SBET for people with increased risk |
References
- Mcguinness, S. L., Veit, O., Angelin, M., Antonini, P., Boecken, G., Boering, M., Bühler, S., Calleri, G., Éperon, G., Flaherty, G., Gossner, C., Askling, H. H., Holmberg, V., Kuenzli, E., Landry, P., Lefevre, E., Libman, M., Longley, N., Maniewski-Kelner, U., … Maclean, J. D. Streamlining malaria prevention recommendations for travellers: current and future approaches. Journal of Travel Medicine, 2024