Diagnosing Malaria Cases Referred to the Malaria Reference Laboratory in Tehran University of Medical Science, Iran

BACKGROUND: The number of malaria cases is declining worldwide; however, it remains as a serious health problem. Diagnosing unusual cases is the most important issue to manage the problem. This study designed to describe the number of falciparum and vivax malaria infected patients referred to Malaria Reference Laboratory in Tehran University of Medical Science from 2000 to 2012. METHODS: A retrospective study was conducted based on the collected questionnaires from each patient referred to the laboratory. Diagnosing results and demographic information for positive cases were analyzed using SPSS software. Problematic cases were evaluated for any difficulties in diagnosis or in clinical signs. Scanning and molecular methods were performed whenever there was an atypical case referred to the laboratory. Some of the samples had various difficulties for diagnosing such as presence of fussed gametocytes and schizonts of Plasmodium falciparum in peripheral blood and CCHF like hemoragic disorders. RESULTS: Plasmodium vivax caused a large proportion of the cases (76.1%) in contrast with P. falciparum that included smaller proportion (22.8%) and the rest (1.1) belonged to mixed infection. Most of the positive cases (69.6%) were belonged to Afghani people. Men (94.6%) showed more infection than women (5.4%), moreover the most infection (44.5%) was seen at a range of 21–30 yr. CONCLUSION: In the case of existing atypical issues to diagnose, it is needed to perform more precise microscopical examination beyond the current standard conditions. Sometimes molecular method is required to verify the exact agent of the disease.