A popular police officer recently returned from a mentoring programme with the Malawian police force is understood to be in hospital after contracting malaria.
Sergeant Jim Thomson is thought to have been admitted to Ninewells Hospital with the high risk tropical disease after reporting feeling unwell following a trip to the African country.
Mr Thomson had been in Malawi as part of a Scottish Government-funded training programme which took officers from Police Scotland to Malawi to help tackle serious crime in the country.
He is reported to have developed the symptoms of malaria after returning to Scotland, and is awaiting test results.
Police Scotland are still to confirm Mr Thomson’s condition but a police source said colleagues were hoping the very highly thought-of officer will be given the all clear.
They said: “Jim came home with a fever and the symptoms were similar to malaria.
“Given he was coming back from a high-risk area, he was advised to report to hospital and he was admitted. Tests have been done and he is waiting to hear if it was malaria.”
Police Scotland will commit to sending as many as 10 officers a year over the next three years to Malawi, as part of efforts to curb serious crime – including rape and child exploitation – in the country.
Officers from the International Development Unit have been working with the Malawian police force since 1993, and the Scottish Government has committed £10 million per year to the programme from April 2017.
Malaria is a potentially fatal tropical disease commonly spread by mosquito bites. It is found in mainly tropical areas across the world, including large areas of Africa and Asia, and Central and South America.
More than 1,500 travellers to the UK were thought to have suffered from the disease – three of whom died – when figures were last collected in 2014.
