Post-mortem diagnosis of imported malaria in France: a case report

Malaria is a potentially lethal parasitic disease due to infection by Plasmodium parasites, transmitted by Anopheles mosquito vectors. Various preventative measures may be recommended for travellers who visit endemic areas. The diagnosis is generally evoked in the context of a febrile patient returning from an endemic zone. Nevertheless, symptoms and clinical signs may be difficult to interpret, and fatal cases may only be diagnosed retrospectively with laboratory techniques, specific pathological features and patient history. The present work reports a case of fatal cerebral malaria diagnosed post-mortem, along with the techniques that allowed identification of the causative agent.

A 29 year-old male was found dead in his rental home during a vacation in Southern France. In the absence of explainable cause, an autopsy was performed, which did not retrieve major lesions. In the context of frequent business-related travels in tropical Africa, several samples were adressed for parasitological examination. Microscopy techniques, along with immunochromatographic and molecular biology assays, led to post-mortem diagnosis of fatal cerebral malaria. It was discovered in retrospect that the patient had not used preventative measures against malaria when travelling in endemic zones, and had not been provided with proper travel medicine counseling prior to his travel.

A vast proportion of imported malaria cases reported in France concerns patients who did not use preventive measures, such as bed nets, repellents or chemoprophylaxis. Given the wide availability of prevention tools in developed countries, and the important number of declared imported malaria cases, there is no doubt traveller awareness still needs to be raised. Moreover, healthcare professionals should always question travel history in febrile patients. The authors advocate for recurrent information campaigns for travellers, and physician training for a better prevention and diagnosis of malaria cases.