Reported malaria cases show movement problems can appear after fever resolves
A review of malaria case reports and cohorts found coordination problems, tremor, and other movement disorders during or after illness; most reported patients recovered, but some needed prolonged rehabilitation.
Based on the published abstract. The full paper may contain additional methods, results and limitations.
The 30-second takeaway
The review described movement problems occurring during malaria or after the acute illness. The most commonly reported problem was cerebellar ataxia, meaning impaired coordination, which often appeared after fever had resolved. Most reported patients recovered completely, although some needed prolonged rehabilitation. These selected cases cannot show how commonly such problems occur among all people with malaria.
Case reports and case series describe selected patients rather than a representative malaria population. Their percentages therefore describe the reported cases, not a person's risk of developing a movement disorder after malaria.
Describing clinical patterns
The review combined individual clinical accounts with cohort studies. Its main question concerned the types of movement problems, when they appeared, and what happened afterward, rather than whether a treatment prevented them.
Illness and treatment timing
Some reports described abnormal muscle contractions or stiffness in children and adolescents after antimalarial treatment. That timing raises a different question from symptoms following malaria itself; this abstract does not establish the cause in each case.
The original publication
Spectrum of movement disorders in Malaria: a systematic review of case reports, case series, and cohort studies.
Garg RK, Pandey S, Mahdi RA et al.
Neurol Sci · 2025
- PubMed ID
- 40537708
- Record checked
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