MALARIA WITH BACTEREMIA IN ACUTELY FEBRILE PRESCHOOL-CHILDREN WITHOUTLOCALIZING SIGNS - COINCIDENCE OR ASSOCIATION COMPLICATION

Data were collected on 642 preschool children who presented consecutiv ely to casualty with fever and no localizing signs. Four hundred and f orty-six (69%) had malaria parasitaemia. The proportion of children wi th bacteraemia was similar in those children with malaria (43/446, 9.6 %) and those without malaria (24/196, 12.2%, P < 0.5). The pathogens i n both groups of children were mainly Staphylococcus aureus and colifo rm bacteria. Although children with malaria/bacteraemia had a signific antly higher prevalence of anaemia (P = 0.001), hepatosplenomegaly (P < 0.01) and combination of hepatosplenomegaly and severe anaemia (P = 0.02), compared with children with malaria alone, there was no correla tion between the severity of parasitaemia and prevalence of malaria wi th bacteraemia. The association of malaria with bacteraemia appears to be coincidental.