Acute respiratory distress syndrome in Plasmodium vivax malaria: case report and review of the literature

Abstract

Plasmodium vivax infection can cause acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This complication of P. vivax infection is being increasingly recognised and was life threatening in a traveller returning from Gujarat, India. Nineteen other published cases of P. vivax with respiratory symptoms are also reviewed and confirm that ARDS was the underlying complication in most cases. Plasmodium vivax-associated ARDS is a clinically recognisable condition whose underlying pathophysiology is likely to reflect processes that are independent of parasite sequestration in the pulmonary microvasculature.

Concurrent Dengue and Malaria in Cayenne Hospital, French Guiana

“…Such complications could be observed in patients considered LDC. One of these patients had pneumonia, which has recently been described as a complication of P. vivax (13).…”

Diagnosis and Treatment of Plasmodium vivax Malaria

“…Severe and fatal vivax malaria has been reported from Indonesia, 52,53 Papua New Guinea, 54 India, 55 and Brazil. 56,57 The main manifestations are anemia and respiratory distress, 53,[56][57][58][59][60][61][62] although series of patients with coma, shock, and renal and hepatic dysfunction associated with vivax malaria have also been described. [55][56][57]61,62 Plasmodium vivax is very sensitive to artemisinin and its derivatives.…”

Mortality attributable to Plasmodium vivax malaria: a clinical audit from Papua, Indonesia

“…Previous work has suggested that vivax-associated lung dysfunction may occur from an inflammatory response in the pulmonary microvasculature, exacerbated by treatment [27], causing increased capillary permeability, alveolar endothelial damage and chest X-ray infiltrates [28][29][30]. One infant had an acute respiratory distress-type picture.…”