Recent cases of falciparum malaria imported to Europe from Goa, India, December 2006-January 2007

An increase in numbers of malaria cases has recently been reported in travellers returning from India, in particular from the state of Goa, on the west coast. These cases have been reported to the European Network on Imported Infectious Disease Surveillance (TropNetEurop, http://www.tropnet.net). In the past two years, there have been no reports of malaria in European travellers to Goa. However, since late November 2006, the malaria surveillance map of the network has shownan unusually intensive signal from India, indicating an increase in the number of malaria reports from that region, including Goa. By 10 January, eight patients had been reported: two in Germany, four in Denmark, and two in Sweden. With the exception of two Danish cases, all patients travelled independently of one another. The two German patients, one of the Swedish patients and one of the Danish patients stayed in Goa for 2-3 weeks and had not visited other regions within India. No changes in the general recommendations for travellers have been made in Germany. In addition, the recent cluster of malaria cases imported from Goa has also prompted the Advisory Committee for Malaria Prevention in United Kingdom Travellers (ACMP) to issue temporary change to its recommendations. The ACMP advises that travel advisors should highlight the risk of malaria, instruct on the use of mosquito bite avoidance measures [6], and recommend malaria chemoprophylaxis to those travellers who will be visiting Goa, particularly areas north of Panaji, and who will be remote from medical care. This advice remains in effect until further notice as the situation is clarified. The recommended chemoprophylaxis is chloroquine plus proguanil. Alternatives are mefloquine, atovaquone plus proguanil, or doxycycline

Data from: Species richness change across spatial scales

Humans have elevated global extinction rates and thus lowered global-scale species richness. However, there is no a priori reason to expect that losses of global species richness should always, or even often, trickle down to losses of species richness at regional and local scales, even though this relationship is often assumed. Here, we show that scale can modulate our estimates of species richness change through time in the face of anthropogenic pressures, but not in a unidirectional way. Instead, the magnitude of species richness change through time can increase, decrease, reverse, or be unimodal across spatial scales. Using several case studies, we show different forms of scale-dependent richness change through time in the face of anthropogenic pressures. For example, Central American corals show a homogenization pattern, where small scale richness is largely unchanged through time, while larger scale richness change is highly negative. Alternatively, birds in North America showed a differentiation effect, where species richness was again largely unchanged through time at small scales, but was more positive at larger scales. Finally, we collated data from a heterogeneous set of studies of different taxa measured through time from sites ranging from small plots to entire continents, and found highly variable patterns that nevertheless imply complex scale-dependence in several taxa. In summary, understanding how biodiversity is changing in the Anthropocene requires an explicit recognition of the influence of spatial scale, and we conclude with some recommendations for how to better incorporate scale into our estimates of change

Imported Falciparum malaria in Europe: sentinel surveillance data from the European network on surveillance of imported infectious diseases.

Malaria continues to have a high morbidity rate associated among European travelers. Thorough recording of epidemiological and clinical aspects of imported malaria has been helpful in the detection of new outbreaks and areas of developing drug resistance. Sentinel surveillance of data collected prospectively since 1999 has begun within TropNetEurop, a European network focusing on imported infectious diseases. TropNetEurop appears to cover approximately 10% of all patients with malaria seen in Europe. Reports of 1659 immigrants and European patients with Plasmodium falciparum malaria were analyzed for epidemiological information and data on clinical features. Regional data were quite diverse, reflecting local patterns of immigration and international travel. By far, the most infections were imported from West Africa. Europeans had more clinical complications; consequently, all deaths occurred in this group. Compared with European standards, the mortality rate was low (0.6% in Europeans). Data from TropNetEurop member sites can contribute to our understanding of the epidemiological and clinical findings regarding imported falciparum malaria