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.

From photoacoustic (PA) experiments we determine the nonradiative carrier lifetime in direct band-gap semiconductors. We use the Rosencwaig and Gerscho model to calculate the PA signal in semiconductors taking into account the distinction between non-radiative and radiative carrier lifetimes. We have assumed that for our high quality crystalline samples, the main contribution to the non-radiative processes comes from CHCC and CHSH Auger recombination for n and p-type materials, respectively. For GaAs, InSb and GaSb samples, the experimental data obtained by means of an open photoacoustic cell were fitted to the theoretical model and we show that the values we determined for the non-radiative recombination lifetime agree well with those reported in the literature.

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.

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