Cerebral malaria in children

Indian J Pediatr 53 : 409-413, 1986

Cerebral malaria in children S.H. Ahmad, R. Moonis, T. Kidwai, T.A. Khan, H.M. Khan* and T. Shahab D e p a r t m e n t o f Pediatrics a n d M i c r o b i o l o g y * , J . N . M e d i c a l College, A . M . U . Aligarh 202001 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 o f Ill and VII nerves were also seen on admission. Six children died. All the rest but one made a complete recovery. O f prognostic significance were the pretreatment levels of serum C 3 and C~ fraction which were found to be significantly lower (p