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Volume 19, Number 11—November 2013
Dispatch

Severe Plasmodium vivax Malaria in Pakistan

Ali Bin Sarwar Zubairi, Sobia Nizami, Afsheen Raza, Vikram Mehraj, Anita Fazal Rasheed, Najia Karim Ghanchi, Zahra Nur Khaled, and M. Asim BegComments to Author 
Author affiliations: Aga Khan University, Karachi, Pakistan (A.B.S. Zubairi, S. Nizami, A. Raza, A.F. Rasheed, N.K. Ghanchi, Z.N. Khaled, M.A. Beg); Aix Marseille Université, Marseille, France (V. Mehraj)

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Table 1

Demographic profile of study participants with Plasmodium vivax and P. falciparum malaria, Karachi, Pakistan, 2009–2011*

Characteristic
 Frequency (%)
P. vivax
 P. falciparum
 Mixed
Sex
F       98 (33) 12 (25)       6 (46)
M       198 (67) 35 (75)       7 (54)
Previously healthy adults       189 (64) 30 (64) 10 (77)
Concurrent illness
Diabetes       49 (17)       4 (9)       0
Ischemic heart disease       37 (12)       2 (4)       3 (23)
Chronic kidney disease       10 (3)       3 (6)       0
Co-existing infection†       34 (12)       5 (11)       0
Others‡       10 (3)       5 (11)       0
Total§ 107 (36) 17 (36) 3 (23)

*n = 356.
†Co-existing infections included dengue fever, urinary tract infection, enteric fever, and hepatitis C, diagnosed by appropriate serologic testing/culture.
‡Other conditions included chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, chronic liver disease, malignancy, and other conditions from the Charlson Comorbidity Index (5).
§Many patients had multiple comorbidities; therefore, the total does not sum the above.

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References
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Page updated: October 31, 2013
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