[Imported falciparum malaria in Marseilles hospitals in 1987. Apropos of 104 cases]

Patients were composed of 85 adults and 19 children; 70 were European, 23 Comorian; malaria was contracted by 9 patients in French Guyana, 60 in Africa, 23 in Comoro Islands; prophylaxis was correct for 45 patients (nearly all of the cases with chloroquine) when the first symptoms occurred. Every case of malaria appeared during the month following their return from an endemic area. Fever was often moderate or intermittent, altered by prophylaxis and previous treatments. Some patients had a clinical profile of "visceral evolutive malaria" and 3 a cerebral malaria. The most frequent biologic alteration was thrombopenia (40 times under 100,000/microliters). No relation between parasites density and clinical profile has been identified. The sensitivity of the strains for antimalarial drugs has been studied 35 times: 28 strains were chloroquine resistant, 3 have a decreased sensitivity for quinine. Most of the resistant strains came from Central Africa. Two patients died.