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Acute febrile hepato-renal dysfunction in the tropics: co-infection of malaria and leptospirosis

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Journal of Infection and Chemotherapy

Abstract

Malaria and leptospirosis are both common in the tropics. Simultaneous infections are possible, although not frequently reported. We report two cases of malaria from India with compelling serologic evidence of coexistent acute leptospirosis. One was a case of infection with Plasmodium falciparum with acute and convalescent microscopic agglutination test titers for Leptospira serovar icterohaemorrhagiae of 1:200 and 1:1600, respectively. The other was a case of infection with Plasmodium vivax that seroconverted to a titer of 1:3200 for Leptospira serovar batavia. Both patients finally improved with cephalosporins and doxycycline after no significant clinical/biochemical improvement with antimalarials standalone. It is proposed that febrile patients with hepato-renal dysfunction should be considered possible co-infection of malaria and leptospirosis.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Internal Medicine, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune, Maharashtra, 411040, India

    Krishna Venkatesh Baliga, Yanamandra Uday, Vivek Sood & Akhil Nagpal

Authors
  1. Krishna Venkatesh Baliga
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  2. Yanamandra Uday
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  3. Vivek Sood
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  4. Akhil Nagpal
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Correspondence to Yanamandra Uday.

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Baliga, K.V., Uday, Y., Sood, V. et al. Acute febrile hepato-renal dysfunction in the tropics: co-infection of malaria and leptospirosis. J Infect Chemother 17, 694–697 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10156-011-0220-7

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10156-011-0220-7

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