Clinical and laboratory findings of Plasmodium vivax malaria in Colombia, 2001

ABSTRACT

A descriptive study was carried out in 104 patients with Plasmodium vivax malaria, from the region of Turbo (Antioquia, Colombia). Clinical features and levels of hemoglobin, glycemia, serum bilirubin, alanine-aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate-aminotransferase (AST), creatinine and complete blood cell profile were established. 65 percent of the studied individuals were men and their mean age was 23. Of all individuals 59 percent had lived in the region for > 1 year and 91 percent were resident in the rural area. 42 percent were farmers and 35 percent had a history of malaria. The mean parasitaemia was 5865 parasites/mm . The evolution of the disease was short (average of 4.0 days). Fever, headache and chills were observed simultaneously in 91 percent of the cases while the most frequent signs were palmar pallor (46 percent), jaundice (15 percent), hepatomegaly (17 percent), and spleen enlargement (12 percent). Anemia was found in 39 percent of the women and in 51 percent of the men, 8 percent of individuals had thrombocytopaenia and 41 percent had hypoglycemia