Very Severe Malaria Treated by Intravenous Artesunate

In endemic areas, Plasmodium falciparum malaria exacts a huge public health toll, causing close to half a million deaths each year. In non-endemic industrialized areas, imported malaria may develop. In France, around 5000 imported cases occured annually, including 10-15% of severe malaria. The criteria for defining severe malaria in endemic areas are established by the World Health Organization (WHO), and have been adjusted for severe imported malaria. In France, in order to optimize management, severe imported malaria is separated into two groups: very severe malaria (VSM) and less severe malaria (LSM). Briefly VSM included coma and/or shock and/or respiratory failure and/or acidosis and/or hyperlactatemia and/or death during hospitalization. In France, severe imported malaria is treated with intravenous artesunate. Little is known about the management of imported VSM in the ICU with intravenous artesunate. In a French national multicentric retrospective frame, the main objective of the present study is to describe in detail: epidemiology, management, outcome and prognostic of very severe imported malaria treated with intravenous artesunate during the period 2011-2019. The second objective is to retrospectively compare two groups : VSM treated with intravenous artesunate in the ICU during 2011-2019 versus VSM treated with intravenous quinine in the ICU during 2000-2010.