Long-Term Neurocognitive Outcomes After Severe Malaria Infection

In 1948, Salil Ghosh wrote of the near-miraculous recovery of several children with severe “malignant malaria” who had been treated with quinine. One illustrative patient, a “girl aged 9 years,” was admitted with 2 days of “unconsciousness with delirium” and found to have “rings plenty,” the classic finding of blood-stage Plasmodium falciparum infection seen on peripheral blood smear. Following administration of intramuscular, and then oral, quinine, the patient “went home in perfect health.”