[Travel and malaria prevention : what lies behind the maps].

Malaria remains a major infectious disease worldwide, with a particularly high incidence in sub-Saharan Africa. For travelers visiting endemic areas, awareness of the risk of infection and the rigorous application of appropriate preventive measures are essential to prevent this life-threatening disease. In Switzerland, a transparent methodology was developed in collaboration with other European countries classifying malaria risk areas based on current epidemiological data and presenting harmonized preventive measures in detailed maps. These maps support travel medicine experts as well as primary care physicians in providing consistent, evidence-based, and practice-oriented travel medicine advice. They are available on the Swiss reference website for travel medicine: www.healthytravel.ch.