Self-diagnosis and self-treatment of malaria by the traveler

At present, a comprehensive, single, safe, and highly effective method to prevent malaria in travelers to endemic areas is not available, despite considerable recent progress in the malaria vaccine field. Recom mendations for the prevention of malaria in travelers are therefore based predominantly on the combination of avoiding mosquito bites (“exposure prophylaxis”) and an appropriate chemoprophylactic regimen. Even such a combination, however, does not provide 100% protection. More importantly, only a minority of travelers makes use of available protective measures. For example, in a cohort of 1659 malaria patients observed in Europe, 60.4% of the European travelers and 72.4% of those visiting friends or relatives (VFRs) had traveled without using chemoprophylaxis, and only a small number of individuals tried to adhere fully to the prevention of insect bites.