Skip to main content
Log in

Clinical profile of severe malaria: study from a tertiary care center in north India

  • Original Article
  • Published:
Journal of Parasitic Diseases Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

One hundred and sixty patients having clinical features of severe malaria reported during monsoon season-August–October 2010 at this tertiary care center of north India. Of these 110 (68.75 %) had Plasmodium vivax infection, 30 (18.75 %) were infected with P. falciparum and 20 (12.5 %) had co-infection due to P. vivax and P. falciparum. The diagnosis was made using Rapid Card Test and was confirmed by peripheral smear examination of thick and thin films. Several complications such as acute kidney injury, jaundice, severe anemia, metabolic acidosis, shock, hyperpyrexia, hypoglycemia, generalized tonic–clonic convulsions etc. were found to be more prevalent in patients with P. vivax infection. These symptoms were until recently known to be associated with falciparum malaria.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Beg MA, Khan R, Baig SM, Gulzar Z, Hussain R, Smego RA (2002) Cerebral involvement in benign tertian malaria. Am J Trop Med Hyg 67:230–232

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Chakravarty A, Ghosh B, Bhattacharyya R, Sengupta S, Mukherjee S (2004) Acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy following Plasmodium vivax malaria. Neurol India 52:130–131

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Clark IA, Cowden WB (1999) Why is the pathology of falciparum worse than that of vivax malaria. Parasitol Today 15:458–461

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Dhingra N, Jha P, Sharma VP, et al., for the Million Death Study Collaborators (2010) Adult and child malaria mortality in India: a nationally representative mortality survey. Lancet 376:1768–1774

    Google Scholar 

  • Diamond-Smith N, Singh N, Gupta RK et al (2009) Estimating the burden of malaria in pregnancy: a case study from rural Madhya Pradesh, India. Malar J 8:24

    Article  PubMed Central  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Genton B, D’Acremont V, Rare L, Baea K, Reeder JC, Alpers MP, Muller I (2008) Plasmodium vivax and mixed infections are associated with severe malaria in children: a prospective cohort study from Papua New Guinea. PLoS Med 5:1–9

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Habib AG, Singh KS (2004) Respiratory distress in non-immune adults with imported malaria. Infection 32:356–359

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Jayavanth S, Park BC (2007) Microrheologic dysfunctions in blood during malaria. Indian J Exp Biol 45:111–120

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kochar DK, Agarwal RP, Kochar SK, Jain R, Rawat N, Pokharna RK, Kachhawaha S, Srivastava T (2003a) Hepatocyte dysfunction and hepatic encephalopathy in Plasmodium falciparum malaria. QJM 96:505–512

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kochar DK, Singh P, Agarwal P, Kochar SK, Pokharna R, Sareen PK (2003b) Malarial hepatitis. J Assoc Physicians India 51:1069–1072

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kochar DK, Saxena V, Singh N, Kochar SK, Kumar SV, Das A (2005) Plasmodium vivax malaria. Emerg Infect Dis 11:132–134

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kochar DK, Kaswana K, Kochar SK, Sirohi P, Pal M, Kochar A, Agarwal RP, Das A (2006) Comparative study of regression of jaundice in patients of malaria and acute viral hepatitis. J Vector Borne Dis 43:123–129

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kochar DK, Pakalapati D, Kochar SK, Sirohi P, Khatri MP, Kochar A, Das A (2007a) An unexpected cause of fever and seizures. Lancet 370:908

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kochar DK, Sirohi P, Kochar SK, Bindal D, Kochar A, Jhajharia A, Goswami J (2007b) Post-malaria neurological syndrome—a case of bilateral facial palsy after Plasmodium vivax malaria. J Vector Borne Dis 44:227–229

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Kumar S, Melzer M, Dodds P, Watson J, Ord R (2007) P. vivax malaria complicated by shock and ARDS. Scand J Infect Dis 39:255–256

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mehta KS, Halankar AR, Makwana PD, Torane PP, Shah VB (2001) Severe acute renal failure in malaria. J Postgrad Med 47:24–26

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Mohapatra MK, Padhiary KN, Mishra DP, Sethy G (2002) Atypical manifestations of Plasmodium vivax malaria. Indian J Malariol 39:18–25

    CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Murray Christopher L, Rosenfield Lisa C, Stephen LS et al (2012) Global malaria mortality between 1980 and 2010: a systematic analysis. Lancet 379:413–431

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • National Malaria Research Institute, New Delhi (2012) Guidelines for the diagnosis and treatment of malaria in India

  • Nautiyal A, Singh S, Parmeshwaran G, Disalle M (2005) Hepatic dysfunction in a patient with Plasmodium vivax infection. Med Gen Med 7(1):8

    Google Scholar 

  • Nicholas MA, Handojo T, Michael CF, Tjitra E, Price RN, Graeme PM (2007) Lung injury in vivax malaria: pathological evidence for pulmonary vascular sequestration and post treatment alveolar inflammation. JID 195:589–596

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nosten F, McGready R, Simpson JA, Thwai KL, Balkan S, Cho T, Hkirijaroen L, Looareesuwan S, White NJ (1999) Effects of Plasmodium vivax malaria in pregnancy. Lancet 354:546–549

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Ozen M, Gungor S, Atambay M, Dalal N (2006) Cerebral malaria owing to Plasmodium vivax : case report. Ann Trop Paediatr 26:141–144

    Article  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Parren A, Beretta F, Schubarth P (1998) ARDS in Plasmodium vivax malaria. Schweiz Med Wochenschr 128:1020–1023

    Google Scholar 

  • Tanios MA, Kogelman L, McGovern B, Hassoun PM (2001) Acute respiratory distress syndrome complicating Plasmodium vivax malaria. Crit Care Med 29:665–667

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Taylor WR, Canon V, White NJ (2006) Pulmonary manifestations of malaria: recognition and management. Treat Respir Med 5:419–428

    Article  CAS  PubMed  Google Scholar 

  • Tjitra E, Nicholas MA, Sugiarto P, Warikar N, Kenangalem E, Karyana M, Lampah DA, Price RN (2008) Multi drug resistant Plasmodium vivax associated with severe and fatal malaria: a prospective study in Papua, Indonesia. PLoS Med 5:1–10

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

We the authors thank the management of Chattrapati Shivaji Subharti Hospital for allowing us to carry out our research work. We declare that we have not received funding from any source/body for carrying out our research work.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Apurva Pande.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nandwani, S., Pande, A. & Saluja, M. Clinical profile of severe malaria: study from a tertiary care center in north India. J Parasit Dis 38, 11–15 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12639-012-0208-y

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12639-012-0208-y

Keywords

Navigation