Korean J Parasitol.
2009 Sep;47(3):269-273. 10.3347/kjp.2009.47.3.269.
A Locally Acquired Falciparum Malaria via Nosocomial Transmission in Korea
- Affiliations
-
- 1Division of Malaria and Parasitic Disease, Korea Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (KCDC), Seoul 122-701, Korea.
- 2Pusan National University Yangsan Hospital, Yangsan 626-770, Korea.
- 3Department of Biological Sciences, Inha University, Incheon 402-751, Korea.
- 4Division of Epidemic Intelligence Service of KCDC, Seoul 122-701, Korea.
- 5Division of Communicable Diseases of KCDC, Seoul 122-701, Korea.
- 6Department of Parasitology, College of Medicine, Inha University, Incheon 400-712, Korea.
- 7Director, KCDC, Seoul 122-701, Korea. docmohw@paran.com
- KMID: 1729459
- DOI: http://doi.org/10.3347/kjp.2009.47.3.269
Abstract
- A 57-year old man who was admitted to an emergency room of a tertiary hospital with hemoptysis developed malarial fever 19 days later and then died from severe falciparum malaria 2 days later. He had not traveled outside of Korea for over 30 years. Through intensive interviews and epidemiological surveys, we found that a foreign patient with a recent history of travel to Africa was transferred to the same hospital with severe falciparum malaria. We confirmed through molecular genotyping of the MSP-1 gene that Plasmodium falciparum genotypes of the 2 patients were identical. It is suggested that a breach of standard infection control precautions resulted in this P. falciparum transmission between 2 patients in a hospital environment. This is the first report of a nosocomial transmission of falciparum malaria in Korea.
MeSH Terms
-
Africa
Amino Acid Sequence
Animals
Cross Infection/parasitology/*transmission
Fatal Outcome
Humans
Korea
Malaria, Falciparum/parasitology/*transmission
Male
Merozoite Surface Protein 1/chemistry/genetics
Middle Aged
Molecular Sequence Data
Plasmodium falciparum/chemistry/genetics/*isolation & purification
Protozoan Proteins/chemistry/genetics
Sequence Alignment
Travel
