TITLE:
Congenital Malaria: First Case Report in Kuwait
AUTHORS:
Ali Sher, Saif A. Latif
KEYWORDS:
Malaria, Congenital Malaria, Neonatal Malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax
JOURNAL NAME:
Advances in Infectious Diseases,
Vol.11 No.3,
September
10,
2021
ABSTRACT: Background: Malaria in pregnancy poses a great health risk to the mother and her fetus and causes abortion, stillbirth, intrauterine growth retardation and low birth weight. The symptoms commonly start between 10 - 30 days of age and the symptoms mostly observed are fever, restlessness, drowsiness, jaundice, poor feeding, vomiting, diarrhea, and hepatosplenomegaly. Aim: The aim of this study was to diagnose malaria in a neonate admitted to ICU with fever, jaundice and hepatomegaly. Case Summary: A 32-day-old female child was admitted to ICU for intermittent high grade fever and rapid breathing, pallor, poor feeding, mild hepatosplenomegaly and physiological jaundice of one-week duration. The mother had malaria two years before while visiting her native country, Afghanistan and was treated with chloroquine for three days. Conclusion: High suspicion should be considered in diagnosing malaria during pregnancy to prevent congenital malaria among all neonates who present fever and splenomegaly in malaria endemic areas as well as in women from malaria endemic countries living in non-endemic areas. In this report, we describe the first case of congenital malaria in a child in non-malaria endemic Kuwait.