Singapore, Sep 14, 2009: Researchers in Malaysia have identified key laboratory and clinical features of an emerging new form of malaria infection. The research, funded by the Wellcome Trust, confirms the potentially deadly nature of the disease.

 

Recently, researchers at the University Malaysia Sarawak, led by Professors Balbir Singh and Janet Cox-Singh, showed that P. knowlesi, a malaria parasite previously thought to mainly infect only monkeys, was widespread amongst humans in Malaysia. Subsequent reports in neighboring South-east Asian countries have led to the recognition of P. knowlesi as the fifth cause of malaria in humans.

 

Now, in a study published in the journal Clinical Infectious Diseases, the researchers together with colleagues from University Malaysia Sarawak, Kapit Hospital and the University of Western Australia, have published the first detailed prospective study of the clinical and laboratory features of human P. knowlesi infections.

 

"P. knowlesi malaria can easily be confused with P. malariae since these two parasites look similar by microscopy, but the latter causes a benign form of malaria," says Professor Singh. "In fact, because the P. knowlesi parasites reproduce every twenty-four hours in the blood, the disease can be potentially fatal, so early diagnosis and appropriate treatment is essential. Understanding the most common features of the disease will be important in helping make this diagnosis and in planning appropriate clinical management."

 

The researchers initially recruited over 150 patients admitted to Kapit Hospital in Sarawak, Malaysian Borneo, between July 2006 and January 2008, who had tested positive with a blood film slide for Plasmodium species. Using molecular detection methods, P. knowlesi was found to be by far the most common infection amongst these patients, accounting for over two-thirds of all cases.

 

As with other types of malaria in humans, P. knowlesi infections are said to result in a wide spectrum of disease. Most cases of infection were uncomplicated and easily treated with chloroquine and primaquine, two commonly used anti-malarial drugs. However, around one in ten patients had developed complications and two died. Complications included breathing difficulties and kidney problems (including kidney failure in a small number of cases), which are also common in severe P. falciparum cases. Although the researchers saw a case fatality rate of just under 2 per cent, which makes P. knowlesi malaria as deadly as P. falciparum malaria, they stress that an accurate fatality rate is hard to determine given the relatively small number of cases studied so far.

 

All of the P. knowlesi patients - including those with uncomplicated malaria - had a low blood platelet count. In other human forms of malaria, this would only be expected in less than eight out of ten cases. In addition, the P. knowlesi platelet counts tended to be significantly lower than for other malarias. However, even though blood platelets are essential for blood clotting, no cases of excessive bleeding or problems with clotting were identified. The researchers believe the low blood platelet count could be used as a potential feature for diagnosis of P. knowlesi infections.

 

Recently, there have been cases of European travelers to Malaysia and an American traveler to the Philippines being admitted into hospital with knowlesi malaria following their return home.

"The increase in tourism in South-east Asia may mean that more cases are detected in the future, including in Western countries," says Professor Singh. "Clinicians assessing a patient who has visited an area with known or possible P. knowlesi transmission should be aware of the diagnosis, clinical manifestations, and rapid and potentially serious course of P. knowlesi malaria."