Malaria Cases Hit Camp Pendleton

More than 135 U.S. soldiers and Marines have come down with malaria since returning from Somalia, primarily because of a strain that hits twice, government doctors reported Thursday.

More than 50 Marines have been infected, most of them stationed at Camp Pendleton.

The Army cases include 77 at Ft. Drum, N.Y.; two at Ft. Benning, Ga.; one each at Ft. Stewart and Ft. Gordon, Ga.; and one at Frankfurt Hospital in Germany.

The total is more than three times the number the military reported in May. That’s because a strain of malaria thought to be very rare in Somalia--called vivax--is reinfecting U.S. soldiers, the national Centers for Disease Control said.

“We were a bit surprised,” said Dr. Rick Steketee, the CDC’s chief of malaria control. “There was more vivax than anticipated.”

The military said Thursday that the count has risen each week.

The cases represent less than 1% of the 20,000 troops deployed last December to help feed starving Somalis. Troops took pills to ward off malaria, although 48 did contract the parasitic infection while still in Somalia.

The troops who came down with malaria after they returned are the cause for concern, the CDC said. They must be treated promptly, not only so they recover but also so that malaria, which was eradicated from this country 40 years ago, doesn’t spread here.

Most are getting sick here because vivax malaria can recur up to three months after infection, Steketee said.

Mosquitoes spread the malaria parasite into the bloodstream, and it travels to the liver to incubate. Then it goes back into the bloodstream to make people sick. Usually, anti-malarial medication will kill it in either place.

But the vivax strain isn’t vulnerable to the medication while it’s in the liver. So it lurks there, waiting to strike again.

All troops returning this summer are being prescribed a second drug, primaquine, that will kill vivax if it is taken daily for two weeks.