Cerebral malaria in children

Abstract

Presented here is our experience with 30 cases of cerebral malaria. The diagnosis in all of them was based on a positive smear report. Plasmodium falciparum accounted for 26 cases while P. vivax was responsible for cerebral malaria in the remaining 4. There were 21 males and 9 females. Sixteen children were older than 8 and 9 between 4 and 7, and the remaining 5 less than 3 years of age. Thirty per cent were ill for over a week before reporting for admission; 83 per cent sought hospital care within 24 hours of the appearance of neurological signs. Fever and altered consciousness were present in all the 30 cases while 23 gave a history of convulsion. Isolated cranial nerve palsy of III and VII nerves were also seen on admission. Six children died. All the rest but one made a complete recovery. Of prognostic significance were the pretreatment levels of serum C₃ and C₄ fraction which were found to be significantly lower (p<0·05) in patients with fatal ending.