P. falciparum causes the most serious type of malaria. The forms other than P. falciparum malaria are known as benign malaria (1).
Other forms of malaria have similar acute presentations to that of falciparum malaria.
There is a prodrome of flu-like symptoms, ie headache, malaise, myalgia, anorexia, diarrhoea and cough (2).
The patient develops paroxysms lasting 8-12 hours:
P. ovale and P. vivax cause fever every 3rd day, ie 1,3,5, etc. P. malariae causes fever every 4th day, ie 1,4,7, etc, in early infection however the regularity of fever may not be seen.
Relapse occurs (after a couple of months or even years) because the parasite lays dormant (the exoerythrocytic schizogony) in either the liver (P. ovale or P. vivax) or in the blood (P. malariae).
Reference:
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