Malaria of importation in the child: epidemiological, clinical and therapeutic analysis. Apropos of 70 cases observed in a pediatric hospital in Paris

Seventy children from 7 months to 15 years old have been treated for malaria at Hospital Trousseau (Paris) during years 1987 and 1988. Thirty nine of them were living in France usually. The infection was one chiefly in Africa (68 cases), and by P. falciparum in 78% of children. The digestive symptoms were frequent (40/70); splenomegaly was observed in 40 children and hepatomegaly in 31. Anemia was present in 59 cases and mild thrombopenia for 31 cases. The C. reactive protein raised in 92% of cases. The diagnosis was late in 31 patients. Only one cerebral malaria case was observed. The chemoprophylaxis was unfitted or absent in 74% of children living in Paris. The chloroquino-resistance was clinically present in 17 cases and the mefloquine was more often used during 1988 year.