PMID: 9176584Mar 1, 1997Paper

Body temperature is a poor predictor of malaria parasitaemia in children with acute diarrhoea

Annals of Tropical Paediatrics
R A GbadegesinO G Ademowo

Abstract

In order to ascertain the usefulness of a temperature > or = 38 degrees C or a history of fever in detecting malaria parasitaemia in children with diarrhoea as recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), 522 children aged from 6 to 60 months presenting with acute diarrhoea were studied in Ibadan, Nigeria. The overall prevalence of malaria parasitaemia was 13%. There was no significant difference in the prevalence of parasitaemia between patients with a temperature > or = 38 degrees C and those < 38 degrees C. Neither was any difference found in the prevalence of parasitaemia between those with and those without a history of fever. Temperature > or = 38 degrees C had a low sensitivity (53%) and specificity (57%) and a low positive predictive value (16%) in detecting malaria parasitaemia. A history of fever had a higher sensitivity (79%) than temperature > or = 38 degrees C in detecting malaria parasitaemia but a low specificity (27%) and low positive predictive value (14%). Similar results were obtained in a simultaneously studied non-diarrhoea control group of 313 children. The implications of using the current WHO guidelines is that many diarrhoea patients with malaria would not be identified, while many patients witho...Continue Reading

References

May 1, 1990·Transactions of the Royal Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene·A Björkman, P A Phillips-Howard

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