We report a case of vivax malaria that showed ruptured form of merozoite only in the peripheral blood. A 28-year old man was admitted to Korea University hospital because of irregular high fever, chill and abdominal pain. The peripheral blood smear, showed only small merozoites which seemed to have been recently released from schizonts and destroyed remnants form of schizonts and did not show any forms of malaria parasite such as ring forms, mature trophozoites, schizonts, and gametocytes. On acridine orange fluorochrome stain, we could not find any suspected forms of malaria. However, we detected parasite LDH which is specific to Plasmodium vivax. Malaria treatment was done to the patient, and he is now under follow up in local hospital.
Abdominal Pain ; Acridine Orange ; Adult ; Fever ; Follow-Up Studies ; Humans ; Korea ; Malaria ; Malaria, Vivax* ; Merozoites* ; Parasites ; Plasmodium vivax ; Schizonts* ; Trophozoites