[Epidemiology of imported malaria and entomological study of breeding sites of potential risk areas in the province of Khemisset (Morocco)]

No case of autochthonous malaria has been detected in Morocco since 2004. This achievement is due to a national strategy to combat the disease by appropriate and well-organized disease detection and treatment, as well as control of the mosquito vector of the disease, the female Anopheles mosquito. Nonetheless, imported malaria cases have been increasing (75 in 2007), due to the rise in international travel and migration from countries where the disease is endemic. This work is divided into two parts: the first part is a retrospective study of the cases of imported malaria identified by optical microscopy in the Laboratory of Medical Entomology of the Khemisset Provincial Delegation of Health from 2000 to 2010. The second part is an entomological study conducted in 2010 of the Culicidae insect family, especially the Anopheles genus. The results show that of 176,457 requests for parasite testing, 14 were positive. All positive samples came from men older than 23 years. The cases identified are imported from two African countries: the Democratic Republic of Congo (86%) and Ivory Coast (14%). The years of high incidence were 2003 with four cases and 2000, 2004 and 2006 with two cases. The species found are Plasmodium falciparum in 13 cases (93%) and Plasmodium ovale in one case (7%). The vector of autochthonous malaria, which was eliminated in 2004, is Anopheles (Anopheles) labranchiae Fallerouni 1926, and it was the dominant species found in our entomological study (424 larvae). The other species were found in breeding sites in potential at-risk locations in the study area.