早期治療介入により重症化を免れた熱帯熱マラリアの１例

A １７years old man studying in Nigeria came back to Japan three days before hospitalization date. He came to our emergency department with fever, headache and epigastric pain from the day before. At first, I couldn’t diagnose with physical examination, blood test and image inspection. But my leader suggested that possibility of malaria because of his travel history. Then we checked his peripheral blood smear and found a malaria parasite. Immediately, we hospitalized him and started antimalarial drug. ３ days after admission, fever went down, and malaria parasite disappeared in peripheral blood smear. He discharged in ７ days after admission. A polymerase chain reaction of Plasmodium falciparum was positive at a later date.
Plasmodium falciparum is often to become severe, and it is important to diagnose early onset. Our case suggests that rapid diagnostic kit and peripheral blood smear are useful to diagnose malaria, and early therapeutic intervention may prevent severe malaria and complications.