Introduction:
Malaria is among the most significant travel-related infections encountered by travelers to endemic countries in terms of morbidity and mortality. In Qatar, imported malaria has increased over the last ۵ years; ۴۹۳ travel-related cases were confirmed in ۲۰۱۶. In the current study, the knowledge of malaria chemoprophylaxis among physicians in the State of
Qatar was assessed. Methods: This was a cross-sectional study conducted during a national travel health workshop at the Ministry of Public Health, Qatar. Physicians participating in the workshop from different national healthcare institutions providing travel medicine services were invited to voluntarily complete a self-administered, structured questionnaire. Results: Forty-two medical doctors participated in the study (۹۲ response rate). Based on their specialty, almost two-thirds (۶۴.۳%) of the participants were family medicine physicians, and one-fifth (۲۱.۴۳%) were general practitioners. Furthermore, most of the doctors were untrained in travel medicine. The majority of participants demonstrated a good knowledge of the malaria parasite (۱۰۰%), Plasmodium species (۶۴.۳%), incidence (۸۳.۳%), transmission (۶۶.۷%), and drug-resistance (۹۵.۲%) of malaria. Additionally, most physicians (>۹۰) were knowledgeable about the major features of severe or complicated malaria as well as malaria prevention and chemoprophylaxis. Conclusion: This study highlights several areas of good knowledge on travel-related malaria prophylaxis and prevention among the study participants; however, there are still a few knowledge gaps that require mitigation. Continuing training programs on malaria prevention in travelers will sustain this good level of knowledge among physicians and improve the quality of pre-travel advice provided by travel medicine practitioners in Qatar.