Malaria causes nearly one million deaths each year and with its recent re-emergence, several fatal
complications are seen such as
cerebral malaria,
hypotension or
shock,
renal failure, pulmonary oedema/
adult respiratory distress syndrome, and hypoglycaemia. Symmetric peripheral
gangrene (SPG) is a severe but extremely rare complication of
malaria. It has a rapid and sudden onset leading to
necrosis which cannot be reversed. A 26 year old
male was admitted and treated for complicated
malaria and developed SPG. He was given intravenous
artesunate, doxycyline,
clopidogrel and acetyl salicyclic
acid for the
gangrene; however, he went into
multiple organ dysfunction syndrome and
septic shock and thus could not be resuscitated. We
report this case to highlight that
physicians treating
malaria should always look for these signs for timely correction and to improve the
patient outcome.