[Malaria in French Guiana: between tradition and modernism]

Guyana is the only department of France in which malaria is a public health problem. The fact that 4,000 new cases including 80% due to Plasmodium falciparum and less than 5 deaths are reported each year shows that the disease is under control but has not been eradicated despite the quantity and quality of the resources that have been implemented. This region of 91,000 km2 with approximately 140,000 inhabitants can be roughly divided into 3 zones. Along the coastline where most of the population lives, malaria is uncommon. In the most remote scarcely populated areas of upper and middle Maroni and upper Oyapock, malaria is stable, perennial and well controlled. In low Maroni and low Oyapock, the impact of malaria is compounded by the high turnover of the population. There is a heavy and poorly controlled movement of migrant people on the two rivers that constitute the natural borders with Brazil and Surinam. Under these conditions strict measures cannot be implemented and malaria remains a problem in Guyana.