Acute Medicine | Infectious diseases | Severe malaria

Severe Malaria
Session Overview
Description
This session summarises the diagnostic criteria for severe malaria.

Learning Objectives
By the end of this session you will be able to:

• Outline the diagnostic criteria for severe malaria

Malaria is a major global health problem causing an estimated 1 million deaths annually worldwide [1]. The burden of this disease falls mainly in the tropics and most deaths occur in young children living in areas with high malaria transmission. Global travel is increasingly fast and accessible and this enables many tropical diseases, including malaria, to present far from the tropics.

In 2008 there were 1370 cases of malaria reported in the UK. Almost 80% of these cases were Plasmodium falciparum and there were six deaths.

The majority of these cases were acquired in Africa and Asia by people visiting friends and family [2]. These travellers often do not seek advice before travelling and frequently do not take recommended prophylaxis.

Immunity to malaria rapidly wanes after migration to the UK, so even travellers who have lived in malaria endemic parts of the world are at risk from severe malaria [3].