Body temperature and malaria parasitaemia in rural African children.

Body temperature was measured and the prevalence of malaria parasitaemia was determined in 198 rural school children aged 6-12 years in a hyperendemic area of southwest Nigeria over a 14 week period spanning part of both wet and dry seasons. Body temperature values in apparently healthy children and in children with malaria parasitaemia were similar with group mean of 37.1 to 37.3 degrees C and with little or no variation in these values with season. The proportion of individual measurements with values > 37.5 degrees C in the two groups were respectively 4.3 and 6%. Despite a seasonal variation in parasite rate, with the highest rates in the wet and the lowest rates in the dry season, there was no significant difference in the proportion of subjects with parasite density > 1000/ul between season. There was also no relationship between parasite density and body temperature. In general, children with parasitaemia < 1000/ul were not pyrexial and less than 2% of all episodes of detectable parasitaemia was accompanied by symptoms of acute malaria. These findings suggest that the presence of malaria parasitaemia has little or no effect on body temperature pattern in a group of rural school children in an endemic area.