Cerebral manifestations of malaria tropica in children - Case report and literature review

Malaria is still the most important parasitic infection and, as Malaria tro pica, one of the major causes of death in tropical countries. Case report: After a five week holiday trip to her mother's native country, Kameroun, an 18-months old toddler,fell ill with fever, anaemia and weariness. Neurolog ical Symptoms presenting with slowered reactions and decreased mental acuit y correlated with significant slowering of the EEG-activity. After having d iagnosed malaria tropica the administration of mefloquine (Lariam(R)) becau se of local drug resistance ended the fever,and all pathologic EEG-findings disappeared. Discussion: This case report lends support to the fact that cerebral malari a should be taken into consideration apart from more frequent complications (haemolytic crisis, thrombocytopenia, cardiopulmonary complications, vomit ing, diarrhoea), especially if clinical features like altered states of con sciousness or neurological signs appear. Cerebral manifestation may be dete cted by typical EEG-findings.