Malaria

• Published in: Queenan's Management of High‐Risk Pregnancy pp. 231 - 233
• Main Author: Adanu, Richard M. K
• Format: Book Chapter
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Wiley‐Blackwell 24.02.2012
• Subjects: clinical diagnosis, confirmed with laboratory investigations; malaria diagnosis in pregnancy, outside holoendemic areas; malaria, affecting mother and fetus; malaria, and nonspecific flu‐like reaction; malaria, disease caused by Plasmodium; maternal anemia, intrauterine growth restriction, low birthweight; miscarriages, in first‐trimester women with malaria; quinine and clindamycin for malaria, in first‐trimester
• ISBN: 9780470655764; 0470655763
• DOI: 10.1002/9781119963783.ch28

Malaria is a disease caused by the protozoon Plasmodium which is transmitted through the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito. The four species of Plasmodium responsible for malaria are P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae. Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for most of the cases of malaria worldwide. It has been reported that, worldwide, there are about 400 million cases of malaria annually with 1–3 million deaths. Malaria in pregnancy is responsible for 75,000–200,000 infant deaths per year. Over 90% of malaria cases occur in sub‐Saharan Africa.