[Malaria--state of the art. I: Epidemiology, forms of malaria, diagnosis]

Year for year, some 2.1 million people die of malaria worldwide. In Germany, about 1,000 people go down with the disease after visiting malarious areas, and up to 3% will die--mostly of tropical malaria. Decisive factors for mortality are age over 60 and delays in effective pharmacological therapy. It is essential that, in the presence of an appropriate history, malaria be suspected early on. The diagnosis can still be established using the "thick drop", or a blood smear stained with Pappenheim's stain, or Diff-Quick. In the event of a strong suspicion, the two methods should be applied every 8 hours for three days.