Malaria Transmission Via Needle Stick Injury: A Case Report and Systematic Review of the Literature.
Mana Malek, Maria Rothensteiner, Florian Rumelhart et al.
✦ AI-curated · Sources linked
Case in brief
An 11-year-old boy presented with severe Plasmodium falciparum malaria. During phlebotomy, his attending doctor sustained a needle stick injury, creating a potential occupational exposure to malaria-infected blood. The report also reviewed published cases of malaria transmission to healthcare professionals through sharps injuries or blood spillage. It identified 22 case reports over 55 years: 15 involving needle stick injuries, one involving a broken glass test tube, and six in which transmission appeared to follow blood spillage onto the hands alone. The abstract does not report the doctor’s outcome.
What made this case unusual
The report highlights that occupational malaria transmission has been described not only after needle stick or other sharps injuries, but also after malaria-infected blood spilled onto healthcare professionals’ hands alone.
Diagnostic / clinical pearl
Malaria-infected blood can pose an occupational exposure risk through sharps injuries and, as reported in this review, blood spillage onto the hands alone.
Why it matters
The authors discuss potential management options for needle stick injuries in the context of malaria, underscoring the need to consider malaria when assessing such exposures.