Falciparum malaria complicated with acute pancreatitis: a report of case series.

Clinical manifestations of malaria cover a wide range of symptoms. Although most infected individuals will only have a relatively benign febrile illness, 1–3 million deaths per year occur due to severe malaria world wide1. This comprises severe syndromes such as cerebral malaria, severe anaemia, jaundice, renal failure, acute respiratory disstress syndrome etc. either alone or in combination2. Out of 4 species of Plasmodium that cause human malaria, Plasmodium falciparum cases have the potentiality of developing all these complications and almost all deaths have been ascribed to falciparum malaria1. Though during the course of the disease, it affects different organ systems of the body causing various complications, little is known about pancreatitis. Hence, acute pancreatitis has been described as a rare complication of falciparum malaria3. In view of rarity, we describe a series of 3 cases of falciparum malaria with acute pancreatitis.