Sudden death due to cerebral malaria: A case report

摘要

Malaria is generally diagnosed ante-mortem. Few post-mortem cases have been described in the literature. Post-mortem cases may present as sudden and unexpected deaths of young individuals rising suspicious of unnatural death, and may therefore be investigated by medical examiners. We present the case of a 24-year-old man who died a few days after returning from a trip to Mali (Africa). Death was attributed to cerebral malaria after a thorough post-mortem investigation. The pathological aspects underlying the fatal outcome are discussed. Malaria is a parasitic disease. Eighty one percent of the cases come from African countries. In 2010, it affected 216 million people and is estimated to have caused the death of 1 240 000 people worldwide. Less than 10% people are affected out of Africa and the most frequent cases come from India. The number of people affected by malaria has increased since 1980, to a peak in 2004, particularly in Africa. In 2009, 2200 cases were reported to the French National Malaria Reference Centre, but the actual number of cases is likely to be around 3400. Among these cases reported in France, 90.4% contracted malaria in Africa, and 60.4% of these concerned travellers. More than 75% of cases reported in France involve people aged 15 to 60; 32.5% of the men were Caucasian and 64% were African, while 15.1% of the women were Caucasian and 82.2% were African. Imported malaria-related deaths are rare in developed countries. Classically, the diagnosis is established ante mortem. A few rare cases diagnosed post mortem have been reported in the literature. These all involved the sudden and unexpected death of young individuals, and medical examiners were thus called on to investigate the cause of death.