Malaria Prevention for Travelers to the Dominican Republic

CDC has received multiple reports of malaria among US travelers returning from the Dominican Republic. With the exception of Santiago and Santo Domingo cities, the Dominican Republic continues to be a country with malaria transmission. Transmission also occurs in resort areas including popular areas of tourism such as Punta Cana and Puerto Plata.

Travelers to Dominican Republic are reminded to take malaria prevention measures. CDC recommends antimalarial medication for travelers going to the Dominican Republic, outside of Santiago and Santo Domingo cities. There are many effective preventive antimalarial options for travel to these areas including: atovaquone-proguanil (Malarone), chloroquine (or hydroxychloroquine), doxycycline, or mefloquine.

Malaria and other diseases including dengue and chikungunya are spread by mosquito bites, therefore measures to prevent mosquito bites should be taken regardless of area of travel in the Dominican Republic. These measures include using insect repellent when outdoors, staying in an air-conditioned or well-screened area, and sleeping under an insecticide treated bed net during the peak biting period for mosquitoes (dusk and dawn).

See the CDC Malaria website (www.cdc.gov/malaria) for additional health information about malaria including prevention of mosquito bites and drugs for malaria prevention. For general health information for travelers to all areas of the world, see the CDC Traveler's Health website (http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/).

Fig 1: Map of the Dominican Republic