Malaria country recommendations review and update

The Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention (ACMP) have agreed some updates to their country recommendations

UK Health Security Agency (UKHSA) Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention (ACMP) have reviewed their malaria prevention recommendations for individual countries. A small number of country updates have been agreed. These updates will be published in the Malaria prevention guidelines for travellers from the UK in due course. Our TravelHealthPro Country Information pages have been updated to reflect these changes ahead of the publication of the new guidelines. Changes for 2023 include:

• Belize: this country has recently been declared malaria free by World Health Organization.
• Haiti: the recommended antimalarial medication has changed from chloroquine and proguanil to atovaquone/proguanil OR doxycycline OR mefloquine .
• Pakistan: the temporary recommendations for the flood affected areas 2022 will remain in place for now and are being reviewed. The wording for special risk groups visiting low risk areas has been updated to list atovaquone/proguanil OR doxycycline OR mefloquine as suitable options where antimalarial medication is indicated following risk assessment.
• Suriname: Change to recommendation for the border area with French Guiana where atovaquone/proguanil OR doxycycline was previously recommended. This area is now described as 'low risk' (with additional wording in place for special risk groups).
• Yemen: the recommended antimalarial medication for risk areas has changed from chloroquine and proguanil to atovaquone/proguanil OR doxycycline OR mefloquine.
• Afghanistan: The antimalarial options for special risk groups visiting low risk areas have been updated to atovaquone/proguanil OR doxycycline OR mefloquine.
• Dominican Republic: The antimalarial options for special risk groups visiting low risk areas have been updated to list atovaquone/proguanil OR doxycycline OR mefloquine as suitable options where antimalarial medication is indicated following risk assessment.

Separately following the ACMP meeting, discontinuation of proguanil in the UK has led to changes in malaria recommendations for a small number of countries. See news item for further details.