Sarcocystis in Malaysia

Published: 14 November 2012

The International Society of Travel Medicine has highlighted reports from the GeoSentinel Sites which continue to receive reports of patients with a muscular Sarcocystis-like illness after recent travel to Tioman Island, Malaysia during summer 2012.

To date, 31 such patients have been reported to GeoSentinel (so far none in the UK). Because there are public health implications for large numbers of undiagnosed ill travellers throughout Europe, a brief report structured like last year’s in the MMWR Morb Mortal Wkly Rep is being prepared for rapid publication in Eurosurveillance. Healthcare professionals are asked to be vigilant and to report patients with suspected muscular sarcocystosis. “We suspect that there are many patients ill with the same clinical entity that are not being identified”.

Contact geosentinel@geosentinel.org if you have suspected cases to report.