A CASE OF ACUTE MANIA ASSOCIATED WITH 
PLASMODIUM VIVAX INFECTION 1 
By Frank G. Haughwout, Pedro T. Lantin, and Ricardo Fernandez 
Of the University of the Philippines, and of the Philippine General Hospital 
ONE TEXT FIGURE 
The case cited here is deemed worthy of note because it is 
one of the comparatively small number of cases recorded where 
infection with Plasmodium vivax has been associated with cere- 
bral symptoms and death. Parasites were present in the periph- 
eral circulation in small numbers only and the temperature 
of the patient at no time rose higher than 39° C., that point 
being reached a few hours before death. Prior to that time the 
fever did not rise above 38° C., this elevation coming several 
days after the onset of an acute mania. 
The patient was one of a series of cases that was being ex- 
perimentally treated with Roentgen rays for splenomegaly of 
malarial origin, the results of which work will be reported in 
another paper. He received only one irradiation, and that eight 
days before the development of the mental disturbance which 
ran its course and terminated in death eight days following its 
onset. At no time did the patient show any indication of injury 
that it seemed possible to trace to the Roentgen rays, and the 
necropsy failed to reveal any such evidence. 
The subject was a male Filipino, 19 years old, unmarried, 
and a waiter by occupation. He was born in Iloilo and had 
resided in Manila for three months. About a year before his 
admission to the Philippine General Hospital he had gone to 
Davao where he had stayed for three months. During his stay 
in that place he had chills, fever, and headache every day during 
a period of almost two months. These symptoms recurred in- 
termittently after his departure from Davao, and also continued 
following his arrival in Manila. 
Physical examination made by Dr. Wenceslao Vitug of the 
house staff, showed the patient to be a poorly developed, poorly 
1 Contribution from the departments of parasitology and medicine, Uni- 
versity of the Philippines and Philippine General Hospital. 
563 
