Childhood malaria in East London.

OBJECTIVE

To describe the epidemiologic, clinical and laboratory features of children younger than 16 years with malaria in East London.

METHODS

Retrospective case review of all children admitted to two East London hospitals with malaria identified between 1996 and 2001 with the use of notifications and hospital discharge data.

RESULTS

A total of 211 children with a median age of 9 years (range, 11 to 179 months) were identified. Children living in the UK who acquired malaria while visiting a malaria-endemic country on holiday accounted for 82% of cases, whereas the rest were children visiting the UK from endemic areas. Three-fourths of children who had traveled to a malaria-endemic area were born in the UK, and 93% were of Black African ethnicity. The peak seasonal incidence was late summer/early autumn. Plasmodium falciparum acquired in Africa accounted for 91% of cases. Although 42% of children took antimalarial prophylaxis, only 15% of medications were taken according to recommended guidelines. Another family member, most often a sibling, was found to have concurrent malaria in 23% (49 of 211) of cases. On the basis of the WHO criteria, 15 children (7.1%) 15 months to 15 years of age had severe malaria, including convulsions (n = 4), acute renal failure (n = 3), jaundice (n = 4), severe anemia (n = 3) and >2% parasitemia (n = 6).

CONCLUSIONS

The majority of children with malaria in this study were UK-born, school age, of Black African ethnicity and were visiting family in Africa, often with other family members. Most children had low level parasitemia and uncomplicated malaria, and they responded rapidly to antimalarial treatment.