[Malaria in Turkey and 14 years of clinical experience]

In this retrospective study, the epidemiologic and clinical characteristics of 105 adult malaria patients, who had been hospitalized between the period of 1992 and 2006 were evaluated. Nineteen percent of the patients were female, and the mean age was 28 +/- 10 years. Fifty percent of the patients acquired the infection in Southeastern Anatolia, while they were on military duty. The most common complaints were rigor (93%), fever (90%), sweating (90%), headache (76%), nausea (45%), and fatigue (38%). The most common physical examination findings were splenomegaly (86%) and hepatomegaly (62%). Anemia was detected in 23%, leukopenia in 47%, thrombocytopenia in 73%, two fold increase in ALT or AST enzyme levels in 32% of the patients. Plasmodium vivax was detected in 101 (96%) patients, whereas P. falciparum was detected in 4 patients (4%). Although the number of malaria cases in Turkey is declining in recent years, the febrile patients with a history of travel to the endemic regions should raise the suspicion of malaria.