Aims and Scope
 Editorial Board
 For Readers
   Current Issue
   Archive
   KJP on
   KJP on
   KJP Search
   Subscription
 For Authors
 
 
   
 
Table of Contents > Abs + Ref
   |    |  Full Text      |  
Korean J Parasitol. 2009 Sep;47(3):269-273.
Published online 2009 August 28.  doi: 10.3347/kjp.2009.47.3.269.
Copyright © 2009 by The Korean Society for Parasitology
A Locally Acquired Falciparum Malaria via Nosocomial Transmission in Korea
Jung-Yeon Kim,1,† Jeong-Su Kim,2,† Mi-Hyun Park,3 Young-A Kang,4 Jun-Wook Kwon,5 Shin-Hyeong Cho,1 Byeong-Chul Lee,1 Tong-Soo Kim,6 and Jong-Koo Lee7
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.

Corresponding author (Email: docmohw@paran.com )

†JY Kim and JS Kim contributed equally to this work.

Received March 06, 2009; Revised June 03, 2009; Accepted June 09, 2009.

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.

Keywords: Plasmodium falciparum, malaria, nosocomial transmission.
References
1. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Republic of Korea.
Available from: http://stat.cdc.go.kr
2. Abulrahi HA,Bohlega EA,Fontaine RE,al-Seghayer SM,al-Ruwais AA. Plasmodium falciparum malaria transmitted in hospital through heparin locks. Lancet 1997;349:23–25.
3. Alweis RL,DiRosario K,Conidi G,Kain KC,Olans R,Tully JL. Serial nosocomial transmission of Plasmodium falciparum malaria from patient to nurse to patient. Infect Control Hops Epidemiol 2004;25:55–59.
4. Jain SK,Persaud D,Perl TM,Pass MA,Murphy KM,Pisciotta JM,Scholl PF,Casella JF,Sullivan DJ. Nosocomial malaria and saline flush. Emerg Infect Dis 2005;11:1097–1099.
5. Moro ML,Romi R,Severini C,Casadio GP,Sarta G,Tampieri G,Scardovi A,Pozzetti C. Maria Outbreak Group. Patient-to-patient transmission of nosocomial malaria in Italy. Infect Control Hops Epidemiol 2002;23:338–341.
6. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Republic of Korea. Communicable Diseases Monthly Report. 6. CDMR; 2007.
(No. 52)
7. Lee WJ,Klein TA,Kim HC,Choi YM,Yoon SH,Chang KS,Chong ST,Lee IY,Jones JW,Jacobs JS,Sattabongkot J,Park JS. Anopheles kleini,Anopheles pullus, and Anopheles sinensis: potential vectors of Plasmodium vivax in the Republic of Korea. J Med Entomol 2007;44:1086–1090.
8. Shin EH,Kim TS,Lee HW,Lee JS,Lee WJ. Vector competence of Anopheles lesteri Baisas and Hu (Diptera: Culicidae) to Plasmodium vivax in Korea. Korean J Parasitol 2002;40:41–44.
9. Shin EH,Lee WJ,Lee HI,Lee DK,Klein TA. Seasonal population density and daily survival of anopheline mosquitoes (Diptera: Culicidae) in a malaria endemic area, Republic of Korea. J Vector Ecol 25;30:33–40.
10. Snounou G,Viriyakosol S,Zhu XP,Jarra W,Pinheiro L,do Rosario VE,Thaithong S,Brown KN. High sensitivity of detection of human malaria parasites by the use of nested polymerase chain reaction. Mol Biochem Parasitol 1993;61:315–320.
11. Kaneko O,Kimura M,Kawamoto F,Ferreira MU,Tanabe K. Plasmodium falciparum: allelic variation in the merozoite surface protein 1gene in wild isolates from southern Vietnam. Exp Parasitol 1997;86:45–57.
12. Thompson JD,Gibson,Plewniak F,Jeanmougin F,Higgins DG. The CLUSTAL_X windows interface: flexible strategies for multiple sequence. Nucleic Acids Res 1997;24:4876–4882.
13. Babinet J,Gay F,Bustos D,Dubarry M,Jaulmes D,Nquyen L. Transmission of Plasmodium falciparum by heart transplantation. Transplant Proc 1991;303:1515–1516.
14. Crafa F,Gugenheim J,Fabiani P,Di Marzo L,Militerno G,Iovine L,Goubaux B,Mouiel J. Possible transmission of malaria by liver transplantation. Transplant Proc 1991;23:2664.
15. Lattau LA. Nosocomial transmission and infection control aspects of parasites and ectoparasitic diseases. Part II. Blood and tissue parasites. Infect Control Hops Epidemiol 1991;12:111–121.
16. Ferreira MU,Ribeiro WL,Tonon AP,Kawamoto F,Stephen MR. Sequence diversity and evolution of the malaria vaccine candidate merozoite surface protein-1 (MSP-1) of Plasmodium falciparum. Gene 2003;304:65–75.
17. Kerr PJ,Ranford-Cartwright LC,Walliker D. Proof of intragenic recombination in Plasmodium falciparum. Mol Biochem Parasitol 1994;66:241–248.
18. Tanabe K,Sakihama N,Walliker D,Babiker H,Abdel-Muhsin AA,Bakote'e B,Ohmae H,Arisue N,Horii T,Rooth I,Färnert A,Björkman A,Ranford-Cartwright L. Allelic dimorphism-associated restriction of recombination in Plasmodium falciparum MSP1. Gene 2007;397:153–160.