A Case Report of Simian Malaria, Plasmodium knowlesi, in a Taiwanese Traveler from Palawan Island, the Philippines

Ming-Chu Kuo

2009 Vol.25 NO.3

Correspondence Author: Dar-Der Ji

Abstract:

In March 2005, a traveler came back to Taiwan from Palawan Island, Philippines, was reported as a simian malaria patient. The initial microscopic examination found that the mature trophozoites were ameba-form with few band-form, which was similar to the trophozoites of Plasmodium malariae. Compared to the published data, we used SSU rRNA and csp gene as typing markers to do polymerase chain reaction and gene sequence for the phylogenic relationship analysis. We confirmed that the malaria case was caused by Plasmodium knowlesi infection. This was the first human case that was infected naturally by monkey malaria. Since more and more human monkey malaria cases were reported in Southeast Asian countries, and thus Plasmodium knowlesi has been suspected as the fifth malaria pathogen for human.