Malaria - the mime. Recent lessons from a group of civilian travellers.

Clinical data on 24 civilian patients hospitalized for malaria in The New York Hospital were analyzed. Of 16 patients infected with Plasmodium falciparum, 14 acquired the disease in West Africa. Only three of the 24 had taken recommended courses of prophylaxis. Diagnosis was invariably, and often dangerously, delayed because physicians often made diagnoses of viral syndromes or used antibiotics; only one patient had a blood smear taken by a personal physician. Although all patients had fever and chills, classic malarial fever was seen in only seven patients; nausea, vomiting and diarrhea were common. Hepatomegaly and splenomegaly occurred in about half the patients. Blood smears stained in routine fashion by Wright's stain were positive in 23 of 24 patients. A normal leukocyte count was present in 19 of the 24 patients and thrombocytopenia in 16 of 23. The most frequent complications were those of central nervous system involvement. Therapy consisted mainly of chloroquine phosphate but other drugs, including quinine, pyrimethamine, sulfonamides and primaquine, were used in special situations. Suggestions for prophylaxis, diagnosis and therapy were made.