Occupational Malaria Following Needlestick Injury

摘要

To the Editor: A 24-year-oldfemale nurse was admitted to theemergency room at Bichat UniversityHospital in Paris, France, on July 4,2001, with fever, nausea, and generalmalaise. She had no notable medicalhistory, except spontaneously regres-sive Sch.nlein-Henloch purpura at 9months of age. On admission, aftershe was given paracetamol, her axil-lary temperature was 37.6°C. She wasslightly jaundiced and reported a mildheadache but showed no resistance tohead flexion. Her abdomen wasdepressible but tender. Urinalysis didnot show hematuria or signs of uri-nary infection. Biologic tests indicat-ed normal values except the follow-ing: platelets 47.4 x 103/μL, aspartateaminotransferase 307 U/L (normalvalue <56), alanine aminotransferase239 U/L (normal value <56), totalbilirubin 58 μmol/L (normal value<24), and γ-glutamyl transpeptidase57 U/L (normal value <35). Results ofan abdominal echogram were normal.Result of a blood film to identifyPlasmodium falciparum was positivefor parasitemia at 0.038 per 100 ery-throcytes. The patient was given 500mg of oral quinine three times daily;intravenous quinine was administered15 hours after admission because shebecame nauseated. Her malaise per-sisted for 3 days, but she did not showany signs of malaria. She recoveredcompletely and was discharged onday 6 of hospitalization