Malaria prevention guidelines for travellers from the UK
The UKHSA Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention updates and reissues these guidelines every year for UK travellers.
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Due to the widespread flooding in Pakistan, antimalarial chemoprophylaxis is currently advised for travellers to flood-affected areas; atovaquone-proguanil or doxycycline ormefloquine is recommended.
Southern and central Pakistan have been most affected, particularly Balochistan and Sindh provinces.
Further information on affected areas is available in the Pakistan 2022 Floods Response Plan: 1 September 2022 to 28 February 2023.
The guidelines are for healthcare workers who advise travellers, but may also be of use to prospective travellers who wish to read about the options themselves.
The Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention (ACMP) prophylaxis guidelines are for UK-based visitors to malaria-endemic areas, and may not be appropriate for use by people who live in endemic areas.
Occasionally, there may be a need to issue temporary recommendations. Please see the temporary recommendations from the National Travel Health Network and Centre for the latest updates for Pakistan.
These guidelines deal with malaria, but malaria prevention is only one aspect of pre-travel advice. An overall risk-assessment-based package of travel health advice should be provided to the traveller.
For previous malaria guidelines, see the archive of older reports on the UK government web archive.
Last updated
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Updated guidance.
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Updated to reflect the temporary recommendations currently in place.
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Added temporary change to malaria advice for travellers to Pakistan.
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Updated map of Namibia and section on visits to national parks.
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Updated with 2021 guidelines.
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Updated Malaria guidance for travellers.
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Updated with 2018 guidelines.
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South Africa has been added to the list of countries with temporary recommendations.
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Updated with 2017 guidelines.
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Updated with 2016 guidance.
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Updated with 2015 guidelines.
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First published.
Update history
2025-04-07 17:16
Updated Botswana information.
2024-12-03 09:30
Added 2024 guidelines and changed ‘Advisory Committee on Malaria Prevention’ to ‘UK Malaria Expert Advisory Group’ to reflect the organisation’s rebrand.
2024-01-16 10:42
Updated guidance.
2023-06-23 13:48
Added notice about discontinuation of proguanil in the UK.
2023-04-25 17:22
Updated status of Azerbaijan and Tajikistan to malaria free.
2023-04-24 17:34
Added notice about reported increases in malaria cases in Sudan and the impact of current civil unrest.
2023-02-08 10:41
Update to doses of prophylactic antimalarials for children.
2023-01-18 14:52
Added notice about the first identification of Plasmodium falciparum artemisinin resistance in the UK.
2023-01-16 09:30
Updated guidance.
2022-09-27 16:30
Updated to reflect the temporary recommendations currently in place.
2022-09-02 13:20
Added temporary change to malaria advice for travellers to Pakistan.