Report of the Australian Malaria Register for 1992 and 1993

Abstract

Australia is free from endemic malaria but several hundred imported cases occur each year. Notification and screening data on malaria cases are collected by State and Territory health authorities and laboratories and forwarded to the Australian Malaria Register (AMR) for national collation and analysis. This report provides information on 758 malaria cases with 5 deaths reported in Australia in 1992 and 712 cases with 1 death in 1993. In both years, just over 70% of cases were male and the modal age group was 20 to 29 years. Cases were reported from all States and Territories, with Queensland reporting the greatest number of cases in both years. The predominant species was Plasmodium vivax, although P. falciparum accounted for just over a quarter of the cases each year. Papua New Guinea (PNG) was the most common source of cases in both years, reflecting the number of people who move between Australia and PNG and the high endemicity of malaria in PNG. The incidence of malaria was also high in travellers from the Solomon Islands in both years and from Ghana in 1992 and Nigeria in 1993. The six deaths over two years highlight the need for medical practitioners to consider malaria as a diagnosis in patients with a history of travel to malarious countries and to provide appropriate advice on malaria prophylaxis to intending travellers.