VISUAL OUTCOMES IN CHILDREN WITH MALARIA

Cortical blindness is a well recognised neurological complication of cerebral malaria although most of the dysfunction usually resolves in a matter of weeks. Retinal changes in severe malaria also occur. These changes include retinal whitening. In a study performed in Malawi, Beare and colleagues demonstrate that retinal changes in malaria, especially macular whitening, do not appear to affect visual acuity after 1 month. This supports the hypothesis that retinal whitening is caused by reversible intracellular oedema in response to relative hypoxia. They conclude that permanent visual dysfunction after malaria is …