[The importance of a quantitative assessment of parasitemia in tropical malaria]

The study was carried out on the population of countries, non-endemic for falciparum malaria, who had contracted abroad infection by drug-resistant (21 persons) or drug-sensitive (52 persons) strains of Plasmodium falciparum. The number of asexual forms of the parasite at the beginning of the disease amounted approximately to 10 thousand or more parasites per microliter in the blood of 14 persons out of 21 who had contracted resistant strains and in the blood of 21 out of 52 persons with sensitive strains. The period of time during which the parasites were detected in the blood of patients infected with resistant or sensitive strains was 12 or 7 days, respectively. It is possible to suspect the infection with P. falciparum resistant strain when the initial parasitemia amounts to 10 thousand or more parasites per microliter and decreases slowly after routine treatment. It is necessary to observe these patients for 28 days after the beginning of the treatment and to follow up, if possible, over 1.5 months.