In 84% of cases, the source was a West African nation. Nigeria accounted for more than one-third of all

cases followed by Cameroon with 12% of cases. At least 68% of patients were residents of the United States who traveled abroad and returned as opposed to newly arrived immigrants. Most patients used no prophylaxis. This pattern is consistent with the trend reported elsewhere,1,6 reflecting the importance of CDK inhibitor review travel to Africa in the importation of this disease. Geographic information system mapping of cases overlaid with US Census Bureau data demonstrated a clear correlation between areas with a high population of self-identified sub-Saharan Africans and with cases of malaria, extending in a narrow band along the northeastern border of Washington, DC and Maryland. Approximately, one-third of patients, commonly with a history of prior partial immunity, were managed as outpatients. These patients were given an initial dose of medication in the emergency department and released, but at least three cases were unsuccessful in finding a pharmacy capable of filling their prescriptions for the remaining treatment doses in a timely fashion and were subsequently admitted. This raised concern that there may be systematic barriers to the timely procurement of antimalarial medications for those patients being treated as

an outpatient for malaria. We hypothesized that the local availability of antimalarial medications was not consistent across communities MK-2206 nmr of differing socioeconomic status; that availability is more likely to correlate with income and prescription practices than with actual risk for residents of contracting malaria. Our assumptions were that high-income areas would have a higher proportion of residents with

easy access to preventive medical services when traveling internationally for work, tourism, or for visiting friends and relatives. Higher rates of pre-travel counseling would lead to higher numbers Lepirudin of prescriptions for antimalarial prophylaxis, thus encouraging pharmacies to maintain these medications in stock. Conversely, immigrant VFR travelers living in less affluent areas would be less likely to use malaria prophylaxis. There is also evidence that African VFR travelers purchase antimalarial medications at their destination for both prophylaxis and treatment usage.7 This may result in a decreased likelihood of pharmacies in higher risk areas to stock these medications, and when malaria is diagnosed in a resident from a high-risk area, these medications may not be readily available. We administered a blinded telephone questionnaire to pharmacists in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, DC. Pharmacies were stratified by ZIP codes into categories of population risk, disease incidence, and income. For this purpose, the 2000 US Census website8 was accessed and ZIP codes in the region were systematically compared against a sample of known high-risk, high-incidence ZIP codes based on prior findings.