-
Views
-
Cite
Cite
J. Daniel Markley, Michael B. Edmond, Post‐Malaria Neurological Syndrome: A Case Report and Review of the Literature, Journal of Travel Medicine, Volume 16, Issue 6, 1 November 2009, Pages 424–430, https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1708-8305.2009.00349.x
Close - Share Icon Share
Extract
Infection with Plasmodium falciparum is known to cause several neurological complications. The most deleterious is cerebral malaria, carrying a mortality of 10–50% in treated patients. 1 Rarely, patients can experience a neurological syndrome following successful treatment, including delayed onset cerebellar ataxia (DCA), 2–4 acute disseminated encephalomyelitis (ADEM), and acute inflammatory demyelinating polyneuropathy (AIDP). 5–9
In 1994, a study from Vietnam was the first to describe a distinctly unique post‐infectious syndrome, the post‐malaria neurological syndrome (PMNS). 10 The paper defined PMNS as: patients with symptomatic malaria infection (initial blood smear positive for asexual forms of the parasite), whose parasites have cleared from the peripheral blood and, in cerebral cases, had recovered consciousness fully, who developed neurological or psychiatric symptoms within 2 months of acute illness. 10 This case series described 22 patients with various signs and symptoms of encephalopathy after severe P. falciparum infection. Since then, 13 additional cases of PMNS have been reported. Herein we describe the first case occurring in the New World, review the cases of PMNS previously reported, and aim to better distinguish PMNS from other neurological complications occurring after recovery from malaria.
