title: Severe malaria in Burkina Faso: urban and rural environment.
abstract: The age distribution and the clinical patterns of severe malaria (SM) were compared in patients from urban areas characterized by relatively low transmission, and from rural areas where the mean inoculation rates are at least twenty fold higher. The mean age of the urban and rural patients was 4.8 +/- 3.0 and 2.2 +/- 1.9 respectively (p < 0.000). The prevalence of coma was higher in the urban subsample (53.6 vs 28.9%, p << 0.000) while that of severe anemia (hemoglobin < 5 g/dl) was higher in rural patients (47.4 vs 14.8%, p < 0.000). Our data, in line with previous results obtained comparing rural areas characterized by different inoculation rates, show that the epidemiological context influences the clinical presentation of SM.
authors.affiliation: Dipartimento di Biologia Molecolare, Cellulare e Animale, Università di Camerino, Italy. modiano@axrma.uniroma1.it
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Modiano
authors.forename: B S
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Sirima
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sawadogo
authors.forename: I
authors.initials: I
authors.lastname: Sanou
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Paré
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Konaté
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Pagnoni
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D002050:Burkina Faso / Q000453:epidemiology; D002648:Child; D002675:Child, Preschool; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007223:Infant; D016778:Malaria, Falciparum / Q000453:epidemiology*; D008297:Male; D010963:Plasmodium falciparum / Q000302:isolation & purification; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D012423:Rural Health; D014504:Urban Health