Man has known malaria for centuries and AIDS has been around for nearly 6 decades. Malaria has already killed millions and continues to kill nearly 3 million every year. As of 1999, nearly 36 million people around the world are infected with HIV and 5 million have died of AIDS related…
Most of the 1-3 million who die each year from malaria are children, mainly in Africa, which is hyperendemic for malaria. In older children, malaria has a similar course as in adults. However, in children below the age of 5 years, particularly infants, the disease tends to be atypical and…
Malaria in pregnancy is a obstetric, social and medical problem requiring multidisciplinary and multidimensional solution. Pregnant women constitute the main adult risk group for malaria and 80% of deaths due to malaria in Africa occur in pregnant women and children below 5 years. Burden of Malaria in Pregnancy According to…
Although P. vivax malaria is considered to be a benign malaria, it has been increasingly reported to cause various manifestations of severe disease, including thrombocytopaenia, cerebral malaria, and acute renal, hepatic and pulmonary dysfunctions, with some reports of deaths. With increasing reports of drug resistance, this indeed is a cause…
Jaundice and Hepatic Dysfunction Jaundice is common in falciparum malaria. Most often it is caused by hemolysis and accordingly there is elevation of unconjugated bilirubin levels. Hemolysis can also elevate levels of aspartate aminotransferase (SGOT). These findings alone therefore do not imply severe hepatic dysfunction in malaria. The mild elevation…
Anemia is a common manifestation of all types of malaria. It is more common and poses more problems in pregnancy and children. In developing countries of the tropics, pre-existing anemia, most commonly due to malnutrition and helminthiasis, compounds the problem. In falciparum malaria, anemia can develop rapidly due to profound…
Acute pulmonary edema is a grave and usually fatal complication of severe falciparum malaria with more than 50% mortality. Acute lung injury is defined as the acute onset of bilateral pulmonary infiltrates with an arterial oxygen tension/fractional inspired oxygen ratio of 300 mmHg or less, a pulmonary artery wedge pressure…
Renal impairment is a sensitive prognostic indicator in severe falciparum malaria. Renal failure is more common in adults and rarely, if ever, seen in children. Usually there is a reversible dysfunction, which may progress to acute tubular necrosis and acute renal failure. It carries a high mortality. Renal dysfunction in falciparum malaria can…
Cerebral malaria is the most common complication and cause of death in severe P. falciparum infection. In falciparum malaria, 10% of all admissions and 80% of deaths are due to the CNS involvement. On the other hand, CNS manifestations are fairly common in malaria and it could be due to…
Severe malaria is defined by the demonstration of asexual forms of the malaria parasites in the blood in a patient with a potentially fatal manifestation or complication of malaria in whom other diagnoses have been excluded. Even though the complications have been considered to be almost unique to P. falciparum…
