Short report: Hookworm infection is associated with decreased body temperature during mild Plasmodium falciparum malaria

Malaria's pyrogenic threshold seems to depend on factors such as age and tr ansmission patterns. We studied the temperature at admission of 200 patient s with mild malaria and observed that after adjusting for body mass index, the presence of other helminths, and other confounders, only hookworm- infe cted patients had lower fever at admission that those without hookworm infe ction (37.5 +/- 0.9 and 38 +/- 0.8, respectively; P < 0.001). Thus, we sugg est the age dependence of the pyrogenic threshold could have been confounde d by the epidemiology of iron deficiency.