Treating Severe Plasmodium falciparum Malaria in the United States: Historical Trends and Current Challenges

Malaria, a parasitic disease transmitted by the Anopheles mosquito, remains a cause of great morbidity and mortality worldwide. Numbers of reported cases from the most recent report on malaria surveillance in the United States (US) shows a continual drop in the burden of malarial disease nationally (1,727 and 1,725 in 2013 and 2014 to 1,517 in 2015)a 1-4. Plasmodium falciparum constituted 67.4% of infections and a reported 17.1% of malaria infections were classified as “severe illnesses”3. Despite reports of dropping incidence over the last few years, the number of malaria deaths in the United States in 2015 was actually higher (11 deaths) than the average over the years 2000-2014 (6.1 deaths per year)3. This brief report discusses the current trends in the treatment of severe malaria in the US. Articles were found in pub-med indexed journals by a team of investigators.