Malaria cases in Reunion surge past full-year 2025 total by late summer

Reunion’s malaria caseload hit 47 imported infections by late August 2026, already clearing the island’s full-year 2025 total of 35 cases and edging past 2024’s count of 46. Santé publique France confirmed the figures in its surveillance bulletin through August 31, framing the acceleration as part of a broader regional resurgence.

The trajectory is sharp. Through April, case numbers were already running ahead of prior years. Then August alone added nine cases, a notable jump after the relative quiet of May, June, and July. The agency attributes the sustained upward trend to a “continuation of the rise in imported cases that began in 2023 following the end of Covid-19 travel restrictions.”

The geographic pattern is concentrated. The Comoros Islands account for 72 percent of cases (34 total), with one additional case traced to travel from Mayotte. The typical patient is an adult male with a median age of 46, returning from family travel to the Comoros or Madagascar. In 98 percent of cases where the parasite species could be identified, the strain was Plasmodium falciparum, the variant responsible for severe presentations requiring critical care.

That clinical burden is rising. While 94 percent of patients experienced uncomplicated malaria, the proportion admitted to intensive or critical care units climbed to 24 percent, up from 13 percent in 2025. The absolute majority of cases remain manageable without advanced intervention, but the shift in severity is placing measurably greater pressure on health services.

Prevention is where the response chain breaks down. Half of infected individuals knew they faced malaria risk before departure. Only 20 percent had started chemoprophylaxis, the standard preventive medication, before leaving. More striking: none of those who began preventive treatment continued it throughout their stay. Santé publique France identifies this adherence gap as a critical vulnerability in controlling imported cases.

The agency has issued guidance for clinicians and the public alike. Any fever appearing within two months of returning from a malaria-endemic zone should prompt consideration of malaria as a diagnosis, confirmed through laboratory analysis. The parasite travels via the bite of the anopheles mosquito. Malaria has not circulated naturally in Reunion since 1979; every case diagnosed on the island is an imported infection.

Meanwhile, the resurgence extends well beyond Reunion. Six employees at Frankfurt Airport contracted malaria, likely bitten by a mosquito that arrived on an aircraft, resulting in two deaths. The incident illustrates how imported malaria can establish transmission in non-endemic settings wherever the vector is present, even briefly.

Santé publique France’s surveillance data frames the operational challenge plainly: a growing volume of imported cases, an increasing share requiring intensive care, and a persistent gap between travellers knowing the risk and actually taking protective measures. The 47 cases recorded by late August are a statistical milestone, but the more pressing question is whether prevention messaging can be strengthened at the point of departure, before the next travel season begins.