Introduction. Intestinal parasitic infections, especially due to helminths, increase anemia in pregnant women. The results of this are low pregnancy weight gain and IUGR, followed by LBW, with its associated greater risks of infection and higher perinatal mortality rates. For these reasons, in the setting of no large previous studies in Venezuela about this problem, a national multicentric study was conducted. Methods. Pregnant women from nine states were studied, a prenatal evaluation with a coproparasitological study. Univariated and multivariated analyses were made to determine risk factors for intestinal parasitosis and related anemia. Results. During 19 months, 1038 pregnant women were included and evaluated. Intestinal parasitosis was evidenced in 73.9%: A lumbricoides 57.0%, T trichiura 36.0%, G lamblia 14.1%, E hystolitica 12.0%, N americanus 8.1%, E vermicularis 6.3%, S stercoralis 3.3%. Relative risk for anemia in those women with intestinal parasitosis was 2.56 (P < .01). Discussion. Intestinal parasitoses could be associated with conditions for development of anemia at pregnancy. These features reflect the need of routine coproparasitological study among pregnant women in rural and endemic zones for intestinal parasites. Further therapeutic and prophylactic protocols are needed. Additional research on pregnant intestinal parasitic infection impact on newborn health is also considered.

Clinico-epidemiological features of pediatric patients with malaria due Plasmodium vivax that developed anemia and thrombocytopenia requiring hospitalization are herein reported. Over a 3-year period, 78 children with P. vivax infection were admitted to our Hospital in Sucre, Venezuela. Clinical manifestations at admission were 93.59 per cent fever, 41.03 per cent chills and 14.10 per cent headache, among others. On paraclinical evaluations 94.87 percent presented with anemia (10.26 per cent severe), 25.64 percent with malnutrition, and 10.26 percent had intestinal parasitosis. The mean hemoglobin levels on admission were 8.09 g/dl and mean platelet counts 127 402 cells/mm3. Among these patients 58.97 per cent developed thrombocytopenia (24.36 per cent severe) requiring transfusion in 25.64 per cent of patients. After antimalarial treatment with chloroquine and primaquine and supportive care all patients were successfully discharged. No deaths or further complications were seen, except for persistent mild thrombocytopenia in 17.95 per cent of the patients.

Although Plasmodium vivax is increasingly recognized as an important cause of morbidity in pregnancy in low malaria-transmission areas of Asia, little is know about the epidemiologic and clinical profiles of P. vivax in pregnant women in Latin America. We describe the clinical features and pregnancy outcomes in a series of 12 cases of P. vivax malaria in pregnant women complicated in some by miscarriage or preterm deliveries and in others with significant degrees of anemia and thrombocytopenia in a population where P. vivax is endemic in northeastern Venezuela.

Morbidity and mortality burden of malaria in the childhood represents a public health threat not only in countries with high levels of transmission, but also in those, such as Venezuela and others in Latin America, with moderate to low transmission. Usually its mortality has been attributed just to Plasmodium falciparum malaria, but the changing patterns of increase in Plasmodium vivax malaria morbidity and mortality are now causing concern. We studied malaria mortality by analyzing different epidemiological variables during a 10-year period in Venezuela, finding mortality rates ranging 0.10-0.36 deaths/100,000 population, with almost a third of deaths in children (<10 years old), corresponding 270 deaths to P. falciparum cases and 30 to P. vivax; but along the period with a decrease trend for P. falciparum and an increase trend for P. vivax.

It has been recently reported that the standard threefold conversion from haematocrit to haemoglobin underestimates the prevalence of anaemia and low levels of haemoglobin in children living in areas endemic for Plasmodium falciparum malaria. The data presented herein describes the experience in a malaria-endemic zone in northeastern Venezuela (state of Sucre), where a similar bias between haematocrit and haemoglobin in patients with Plasmodium vivax infection was found. In summary, the relationship between haematocrit and haemoglobin needs to be specifically evaluated according to each particular region or epidemiological setting.