Challenging Experience with Severe Complicated Malaria in the City of Dhaka

Abstract

Malaria is a vector-borne febrile illness that requires an association of three factors-parasite, vector, and host-to continue its life cycle.The physical and cultural environments, as rainfall, humidity, and temperature permitted Bangladesh to be a malaria-endemic area, where Plasmodium falciparum is the dominant parasite and accounts for 93% of the malaria cases in the country. Due to the high degree of severity of the disease and about 15% of total annual deaths in Bangladesh, in the year of 1961, Malaria Eradication Program (MEP) was introduced. NMEP caused a significant reduction in total malaria incidences, severity and deaths. Still 33.6% of the total population in Bangladesh is at risk of malaria and the majority of cases are reported in 13 endemic areas of 64 districts in the country. Above all, resurgence of malaria and treatment resistant cases have become a burning issue to think about in recent years. Here, we present two severe falciparum malaria cases that challenged us with the complicated nature of the disease in Dhaka city, which is not listed as a malaria endemic zone of Bangladesh.