Congenital malaria by Plasmodium falciparum

Abstract

Congenital malaria (CM) is a Plasmodium spp infection acquired in utero or during delivery with nonspecific clinical manifestations. Plasmodium falciparum can cause severe illness in pregnant women and newborns.

Objective: to describe two cases of CM caused by Plasmodium falciparum, differential diagnosis of sepsis in newborns of pregnant women who live in or have visited endemic malaria zones.

Clinical Cases: Female neonates born in a non-endemic malaria area, diagnosed with neonatal sepsis and treated with antibiotics without clinical response. After the first week of life, the peripheral blood smear identified trophozoites of Plasmodium falciparum thus the newborns were treated with intravenous quinine, improving their condition. The mothers of the two newborns who had malaria in pregnancy, one of them received treatment and she was asymptomatic, and the other one had severe malaria at the time of delivery.

Conclusions: CM can cause severe neonatal disease with non-specific, sepsis-like clinical manifestations in which early treatment decreases the risk of complicated malaria. It is a differential diagnosis in newborns of women with a history of malaria during pregnancy or pregnant women visiting or living in endemic malaria areas.