Malaria – a case of vivax

Case study

First visit, three months before travel

A 13-year-old boy presented for the first time for pretravel health advice three months before a school excursion to Papua New Guinea (PNG). For two weeks he would be living in a hut in a rural village about two hours from the north coast and at an altitude of roughly 1200 m. He had a past medical history of benign focal childhood epilepsy and varicella. Otherwise he was in good health and general examination was unremarkable. His standard polio, measles–mumps–rubella and meningococcal C vaccinations were reported to be up to date according to NHMRC recommendations and he had had a tetanus– diphtheria–pertussis vaccination three years previously.