Background : With the dramatic increase in international travel among Egyptian people, the risk of malaria importation from malaria-endemic regions threatens the achievement of the malaria elimination goal of Egypt Patients and methods : Blood samples from 700 patients were collected from different medical laboratories in Egypt from travelers to African endemic areas either Egyptians or foreigners coming to Egypt within previous 8 weeks; during period from January to December 2016. All samples were done by direct microscopic examination of the Giemsa-stained thick and thin blood smears [“gold standard”] , as well as the rapid diagnostic test [RDT] [Accurate MAL-w23, Polymed] for feverish cases as a confirmatory test

Results : A total of 25; 3.57% [out of 700] imported malaria cases were recorded. P. falciparum [15 cases, 60%] and P. vivax [14 cases, 56%] were the two predominant species as well as one case [4%] P ovale. From them 4 cases had mixed P. falciparum and P. vivax and one case had P. falciparum and ovale, The cases were coming from 11 African countries and their distribution was, Sudan, 11; Nigeria, 5; Ghana, 3; Cameroon, 1; Angola, 1; Congo, 1; Chad, 1; Guinea, 1; Togo, 1; South Africa, 1; and Eritrea, 1case. RDT was performed for feverish [300] patients and positive results were obtained among 27 cases. Twenty five of them had parasitemia while the other two had history of past infection
Conclusions : Imported malaria infections pose an increasing challenge to the malaria elimination in Egypt. The risk of potential re-introduction of malaria into inland malaria free areas of Egypt should be urgently addressed, also the rapid diagnostic tests [RDTs] , offer a useful tool for rapid diagnosis in suspected cases