TY - JOUR AU - Barber, Bridget E. AU - William, Timothy AU - Jikal, Mohammad AU - Jilip, Jenarun AU - Dhararaj, Prabakaran AU - Menon, Jayaram AU - Yeo, Tsin W. AU - Anstey, Nicholas M. T1 - Plasmodium knowlesi Malaria in Children T2 - Emerging Infectious Disease journal PY - 2011 VL - 17 IS - 5 SP - 814 SN - 1080-6059 AB - Plasmodium knowlesi can cause severe malaria in adults; however, descriptions of clinical disease in children are lacking. We reviewed case records of children (age <15 years) with a malaria diagnosis at Kudat District Hospital, serving a largely deforested area of Sabah, Malaysia, during January–November 2009. Sixteen children with PCR-confirmed P. knowlesi monoinfection were compared with 14 children with P. falciparum monoinfection diagnosed by microscopy or PCR. Four children with knowlesi malaria had a hemoglobin level at admission of <10.0 g/dL (minimum lowest level 6.4 g/dL). Minimum level platelet counts were lower in knowlesi than in falciparum malaria (median 76,500/µL vs. 156,000/μL; p = 0.01). Most (81%) children with P. knowlesi malaria received chloroquine and primaquine; median parasite clearance time was 2 days (range 1–5 days). P. knowlesi is the most common cause of childhood malaria in Kudat. Although infection is generally uncomplicated, anemia is common and thrombocytopenia universal. Transmission dynamics in this region require additional investigation. KW - malaria KW - Plasmodium knowlesi KW - children KW - Plasmodium falciparum KW - parasites KW - Malaysia KW - research DO - 10.3201/eid1705.101489 UR - https://wwwnc.cdc.gov/eid/article/17/5/10-1489_article ER - End of Reference