Severe Malaria in Gabon: Epidemiological, Clinical and Laboratory Features in Amissa Bongo Hospital of Franceville

Background: Malaria is the most deadly parasitic disease and continues to claim more than a half million of deaths across the world each year, mainly those of under-fives children in sub-Saharan Africa. The aim of this study was to determine the epidemiological, clinical and laboratory features of patients with severe malaria at the Centre Hospitalier Régional Amissa Bongo (CHRAB), a referral hospital in Franceville.

Methods: It was an observational descriptive study conducted at CHRAB over 10 months. All admitted patients at the emergency ward of all ages presenting with positive test to falciparum malaria diagnosed by microscopy and rapid test with clinical signs of severe illness describe by World Health Organization were enrolled.

Results: During this study, 1065 patients were tested positive for malaria, of them 220 had severe malaria. Three quarters (75.0%) were less than 5 years of age. The mean time to consultation was 3.5 ± 1 days. The most frequent signs of severity on admission were dominated by neurological disorders 92.27% (prostration 58.6% and convulsion 24.1%), followed by severe anemia 72.7%, hyperlactatemia 54.6%, jaundice 25% and respiratory distress 21.82%.The other forms such as hypoglycemia, haemoglobinuria, renal failure were found in low proportions < 10%. Twenty-one patients died, coma (aOR = 15.54, CI 5.43-44.41, p < 0.01), hypoglycemia (aOR = 15.37, CI 2.17-65.3, p < 0.01), respiratory distress (aOR = 3.85, CI 1.53-9.73, p = 0.004) and abnormal bleeding (aOR = 16.42, CI 3.57-104.73, p = 0.003) were identified as independent predictors of a fatal outcome. Anemia was associated with decreased mortality.

Conclusion: Severe malaria remains a public health problem affecting mostly children under 5 years. Classification of malaria helps identify the most severely ill patients and aids early and appropriate management of the severe malaria cases.