Spontaneous haemothorax and haemoperitoneum in Plasmodium vivax malaria.

Although patients with Plasmodium vivax malaria usually recover from the disease without any sequelae, several complications do occasionally occur and these may need urgent invasive procedures, including surgery, and/or lead to fatal blood loss (Jacobs et al., 2005; Gockel et al., 2006; Maguire and Baird, 2010). Worryingly, the incidence of complications in P. vivax malaria, such as acute respiratory-distress syndrome or splenic rupture, appears to be increasing (Kasliwal et al., 2009). A case of P. vivax malaria complicated by spontaneous haemothorax (perhaps the first ever reported) is described below.