Congenital malaria: scope review

Malaria continues to be the most common parasitic disease with a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Its etiologic agent is a protozoan of the genus Plasmodium and the natural mechanism of transmission occurs through the bite of the female mosquito of the genus Anopheles. However, transmission may be accidental by transfusion of blood from an infected donor or from unintended contacts with contaminated blood and by congenital transmission. The objective of this work is to map the state of the art of knowledge about congenital malaria. The study was delineated as a review of scope according to the methodology proposed by the Joanna Briggs Institute of Australia. The articles were searched in the Virtual Health Library and PubMed. The sample consisted of five studies published in English-language periodicals between the years 2006 to 2011. The results mentioned 32 cases of congenital malaria. It is concluded that although rare congenital malaria exists, but few studies describe this phenomenon and there is no consensus among the authors about the exact moment of transmission.