BODY-TEMPERATURE AND MALARIA PARASITEMIA IN RURAL AFRICAN CHILDREN

Body temperature was measured and the prevalence of malaria parasitaem ia was determined in 198 rural school children aged 6-12 years in a hy perendemic area of southwest Nigeria over a 14 week period spanning pa rt of both wet and dry seasons. Body temperature values in apparently healthy children and in children with malaria parasitaemia were simila r with group mean of 37.1 to 373 degrees C and with little or no varia tion in these values with season. The proportion of individual measure ments with values > 37.5 degrees C; in the two groups were respectivel y 43 and 6%. Despite a seasonal variation in parasite rate, with the h ighest rates in the wet and the lowest rates in the dry season, there was no significant difference in the proportion of subjects with paras ite density > 1000/ul between season. There was also no relationship b etween parasite density and body temperature. In general, children wit h parasitaemia < 1000/ul were not pyrexial and less than 2% of all epi sodes of detectable parasitaemia was accompanied by symptoms of acute malaria. These findings suggest that the presence of malaria parasitae mia has little or no effect on body temperature pattern in a group of rural schoolchildren in an endemic area.