J Korean Acad Fam Med.
2004 May;25(5):403-410.
The Clinical Analysis of 79 Cases of Indigenous Malaria in Myongji Hospital during 4 Years
- Affiliations
-
- 1Department of Family Medicine, Myongji Hospital, Kwandong University College of Medicine, Korea.
- 2Department of Internal Medicine, Myongji Hospital, Kwandong University College of Medicine, Korea.
- 3Younsei Noble Hospital, Korea.
Abstract
- BACKGROUND
In the Republic of Korea, there had been no reports about indigenous malaria cases since 1984 until a vivax malaria case was detected in 1993. Thereafter vivax malaria has been a reemerging disease in Korea, the number of cases of malaria increasing recently and the prevalent area being more wider. We suggested that we should take malaria into consideration as the differential diagnosis whenever we meet the febrile patients. We analyzed the cases of malaria who were treated in Myoungji hospital located in Goyang-Si during 4years.
METHODS
We retrospectively analyzed data of 79 confirmed cases of malaria treated in the Myoungji hospital from January 1, 1998 to December 31, 2001. All of the patients had no histories of traveling abroad, drug abuse or blood transfusion. The clinical manifestation, hematologic abnormalities and prognosis of patients were reviewed.
RESULTS
Seventy-nine cases of malaria were diagnosed as vivax malaria by blood smears. Vivax malaria was developed in Goyang-Si from May through November. Common symptoms were fever (100%), chilling (84.8%), headache (64.6%) and myalgia (55.7%). Splenomegaly was detected in 77.2% of cases by sonography. In 1998, Tertian fever pattern was most frequent. Since 1999, irregular and atypical fever patterns, such as almost-daily high fever or the every fourth or fifth-day fever, were increased in numbers. Laboratory findings included thrombocytopenia (92.4%), anemia (29.1%), leukopenia (25.3%) and leukocytosys (5.1%).
CONCLUSION
ICases of indigenous malaria have been progressively increasing in the Republic of Korea. Therefore early diagnosis, treatment and prevention of malaria are very important. Fortunately, patients were well responsed to treatment.
