Cerebral malaria [letter]

RESUMO

When young children are infected with P. falciparum; meningitis is often incidentally associated with parasitaemia and can be difficult to distinguish clinically from cerebral malaria. There is yet no clear evidence that lumbar puncture is dangerous in cerebral malaria and it is reasonable to do lumbar punctures to exclude bacterial meningitis in children with fever and coma in areas where malaria is endemic