Plasmodium ovale - a case report from Gujarat

The geographical distribution of the four human malaria parasite species‐Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. malariae and P. ovale is variable and is dependent on a number of factors such as season, endemicity and vector distribution. P. vivax is the most widely distributed and the most common species observed in temperate regions of the world, while P. falciparum is the most widespread throughout the world’s tropics 1 . Records of P. ovale infection are scanty in all geographical areas of the malaria-endemic world, with the exception of tropical Africa. P. ovale is seldom seen except in sub-Saharan Africa and on some islands of the western Pacific. However, in some parts of the tropical western Pacific region P. ovale appears more consistently. A prevalence of that magnitude was thought to occur only in tropical Africa but it seems that this may no longer be so 1 . The occurrence of P. ovale has not been very common in India and till date only three reports of P. ovale are available from Kolkata 2 , Orissa 3 and more recently from Delhi 4 . We report a first case of