[Malaria prevention in the army: experience in senegal]

The Senegalese army has acquired extensive experience in malaria prophylaxis in Sub-Saharan Africa. Until the early 90s, chloroquine-based drug prophylaxis was routinely administered during the transmission season. Currently this policy has been abandoned inside the country in favor of early treatment of infection. This change was made possible by the presence of qualified staff in all barracks. For extraterritorial interventions in Sub-Saharan Africa, drug prophylaxis is still used since most of the Senegalese population lives in the Sahelian zone without immunity to malaria and most host countries are in areas of high transmission. Treatment protocols have been defined in function of Plasmodium drug sensitivity in each country. For all West African nations except Nigeria, the protocol involves a combination of choroquine and proguanil at a dose of 300 mg per week and 200 mg per day respectively. For Central African nations in the south and east as well as for Nigeria, either mefloquine at a dose of 250 mg per week or doxycycline at a dose of 100 mg per day are used. Although acceptance has been slow, use of impregnated bednets is now an integral part of the prevention strategy. The insecticide used inside the country is deltametrin, but other products may be used during extraterritorial operations depending on vector sensitivity in the facilities host country. Vector control by spraying of insectides in and eliminating larval deposits is also an important part of the prevention strategy used by the Senegalese army which maintains a mobile unit for that purpose.