Malaria continues to be a challenging problem in the developing world, and the
burden of this life threatening disease continues to be borne by young children
living in Sub Saharan Africa. One of the biggest challenges to the prevention and
control of this problem lies in accurately diagnosing malaria, and distinguishing it
from the many other febrile illnesses which present in children in this age group.
Liberia is a West African country with a high burden of malaria. Very little is
known about the presentation of severe malaria in children aged 5 years old and
younger in Liberia. We undertook a prospective, hospital -based study of
children 5 and under presenting to JKF Medical Center, the national referral
hospital, with fever and signs and symptoms consistent with malaria. The aims of
our study were to determine: 1) the frequency of confirmed malaria cases, 2) the
frequency of non-malaria diagnoses, 3) the prevalence of anti-malarial drug
resistance mutations, 4) the presence of other life threatening etiologies of febrile
illness such as S. typhii and Dengue virus and 5) immunological profiling
associated with severe malaria