CEREBRAL MALARIA IN CHILDREN: A CASE REPORT

Background: Malaria is an acute and chronic illness characterized by paroxysms of fever, chills, sweating, fatigue, anemia, and splenomegaly. Most malarial deaths occur in infants and young children. Plasmodium falciparum causes the most severe form of malaria and is associated with more intense parasitemia. A manifestation of severe disease most common in young children includes cerebral malaria. Mortality rate of cerebral malaria is 20 to 40%. Malaria acquired in P. falciparum areas with known chloroquine resistance or where there is any malaria hotline should generally be treated with drugs other than chloroquine. In this paper we introduce a case of cerebral malaria from Zahedan/Iran. Case report: A 13-year old girl is presented with fever, jaundice, pallor and seizure. She was treated initially with chloroquine and premaquine. During treatment she developed convulsions with decreased level of consciousness. Suspecting chloroquine resistance this was substituted by quinine. After three days, she recovered completely and blood smear was free of parasites