Two children with malaria, then fortunately healed and discharged, were hospitalized in our health facility, in a different ward, in the same days when little Sofia was in this hospital. Since the transmission of malaria does not occur by air or by contact, we are investigating the very rare hypothesis that the little ones had mosquitoes in their luggage or clothes, that they stung them and then the girl. This was explained to Adnkronos Salute by Paolo Bordon, the general director of the Health Services Company of the Province of Trento, talking about the case of the 4-year-old girl who died of malaria in Brescia, after being hospitalized by the Santa Chiara hospital in Trento and from there then transferred in desperate conditions to the Opedali Civili. Bordon reconstructs the story: “On August 13, the child was hospitalized in Portogruaro for problems related to diabetes; she was then transferred on August 16 to Trento, to the Santa Chiara hospital, where she was treated for that type of problem and discharged on August 21. She then went to our emergency room again on August 31, with a high fever and symptoms she didn't have before. She was diagnosed with pharyngitis: for a girl who did not travel abroad, malaria could not be imagined. Antibiotic therapy was prescribed and the little girl went home ”. “The family brought her back to us in very serious condition on Saturday 2 September and at that point an epilepsy was suspected, but after initial tests such as CT scan and resonance, negative results, it was excluded. At that point, a further blood count was carried out and thanks to some alerts and the expertise of biological technicians, malaria began to be suspected and investigated on this front. Then, unfortunately, the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, the most aggressive, was found, and the diagnosis and initial treatment was made ”. Finally, the child was transferred to Brescia, where she died.
