Brote de malaria inducida en Sala de Pediatría del Hospital José G. Hernández, Trujillo, Venezuela 2006

in order to establish the nature of transmission, an operative research was performed on a malaria outbreak involving children hospitalized in the pediatric wards of the jose gregorio hernandez hospital from trujillo city, western venezuela. between january and march-2006, 364 children were hospitalized with different diagnosis. a subsequent research identified plasmodium vivax malaria. the geographic spread of cases, outside the receptive and vulnerable malaria areas, appearing only in pediatric patients with previous hospitalization, the absence of ill adults and the lack of enough permanent and effective vectors, moved away the acceptability of vector transmission. by activating the surveillance system, children were located at their residences, and eighteen induced malaria cases due to p. vivax were diagnosed. induced malaria, as an expression of important mistakes in parenteral treatment administration procedures, could expose the population to other risks, such as hepatitis or hiv, taking into account that malaria itself could have caused the death of these children.