Quijada MMÁ, Puente GMF, Rodríguez-Morales AJ

Language: English
References: 14
Page: 204-206
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Objectives: To describe the clinical and epidemiological aspects related to those diagnosed and admitted cases of malaria at the Hospital Victorino Santaella from Los Teques, Miranda, in the period January 2000-July 2008. Patients and Methods: A comprehensive review of all medical records with diagnosis of malaria that were hospitalized at our institution in the study period, with the objective to characterize the clinical and epidemiological aspects of this pathology acquired in endemic zones of the country, was done. Results: During the study period 20 cases of imported malaria were admitted. Mean age of patients was 26.45 years-old (±17.63) (range 5-75 years-old), 40% of them were ‹18 years-old. Regard gender, 50% were male. About their precedence, 50% returned from Sucre state, 15% from Bolívar state and 10% from Amazonas state. Clinically, 85% presents fever, 75% chills, 40% headache, 20% malaise, 10% myalgia, among other signs and symptoms. One patient was pregnant. Regard the etiology, 100% of these cases were due to P. vivax (diagnosis was made by microscopy with Giemsa stain). All cases were successfully treated with chloroquine and primaquine as is established in the national guidelines for malaria treatment. Conclusions: Imported malaria represents an important public health problem not just in non-endemic countries where their tourists travel to endemic countries with the possibility to return having acquired this tropical infection, but also in countries such as Venezuela with endemic regions where populations from non-endemic zones, as Los Teques, could travel to those regions and returned infected, many times being lately diagnosed due to the lack of a proper clinical and epidemiological assessment in those cases.

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