fever, chills, bad all over, headache”, explains Yves Van Laethem

Posted on Friday, July 22, 2022 at 10:34 a.m.

For the fourth time in three years, a case of malaria has been detected in a citizen staying in Belgium. Yves Van Laethem, specialist in internal medicine and infectious diseases, reacts.

After coronavirus, following monkeypox, following the first case of Polio discovered in the United States in ten years, there you have it… Malaria. According to De Standaard, a case of Malaria has indeed been detected in a citizen who lives near Zaventem airport, in Steenokkerzeel.

According to the daily, the woman was seriously ill for several days. The Flemish Health Agency “Zorg en Gezondheid” thinks that the mosquito which transmitted the disease to him made the trip from Africa on board a plane. The lady has indeed not traveled recently.

Cases of malaria are “extremely rare” in our country, specify the Flemish health authorities. Four cases have been identified in our country in three years. The mosquito carrying the parasite does not normally know how to survive with us.

“It looks like Covid: fever, chills, ache all over, headache”

Yves Van Laethem, specialist in tropical diseases, explains to us: “It is certainly a mosquito which boarded a plane from Africa and which escaped the “fly tox” that the hostesses spray before the flight. As it is very hot here at the moment, the mosquito is happy and survives. It can only fly within a radius of 2 or 3 kilometers, which is why the cases always take place very close to Zaventem”.

What regarding the symptoms? “It looks like the Covid: fever, chills, bad all over, headache… And alas, we can die from it. The problem, when we have malaria here in Belgium, is that we think of everything except that. And when you realize it’s malaria, it’s already too late. However, cases are rare. And a person carrying malaria does not know how to transmit it to a third party. The vector is always the African mosquito. Our own mosquitoes cannot serve as a vector, a priori. There is therefore a form of cul-de-sac. It should be noted that malaria, which was present in Belgium in the polders, has not existed here since the 1940s or 1950s”, explains the specialist.