Malaria Severity in Mangaluru City in the Southwestern Coastal Region of India.

Dakshina Kannada district in the Southwestern region of Karnataka state, India, including Mangaluru city is endemic to malaria. About 80% of malaria infections in Mangaluru and its surrounding areas are caused by and the remainder is due to . Malaria-associated clinical complications significantly occur in this region. Here, we report the pathological conditions of 41 cases of fatal severe malaria, admitted to the district government hospital in Mangaluru city during January 2013 through December 2016. The results of clinical, hematological, and biochemical analyses showed that most of these severe malaria cases were associated with thrombocytopenia, anemia, metabolic acidosis, acute respiratory distress, and single or multi-organ dysfunction involving liver, kidney, and brain. Of the 41 fatal malaria cases, 24, 10, and seven patients had , , and and mixed infections, respectively. These data suggest that besides that is known to extensively cause severe and fatal malaria illnesses, causes fatal illnesses substantially in this region, an observation that is consistent with recent findings in other regions.