Abdominal pain in a patient with recurrent malaria – a case report

Abstract

Currently the majority of malaria cases in Europe are imported by international travellers and immigrants. Typical clinical signs of malaria are recurrent fever, hepatosplenomegaly and haemolytic anaemia. Abdominal pain is not a specific clinical sign of malaria. We present a clinical case of three-day malaria in a 17-year-old Indian citizen who was admitted to the Ternopil Regional Children’s Hospital with fever and severe abdominal pain. The peculiarity of this case was the presence of fever and severe abdominal pain at the onset of the disease, which led to admission of the patient to surgical department and delayed correct diagnosis. Careful, thoro- ugh case history is one of the key points on the way to the accurate diagnosis. There is a need to increase the physicians’ awareness of malaria in patients with abdominal pain who have come from malaria endemic countries.