Simple eye test can diagnose severe malaria

[NAIROBI] Cerebral malaria can be diagnosed by a simple eye examination, a method that is both quick and cheap and could save thousands of lives in malarial regions, a new study shows.

Diagnosing cerebral malaria — a severe complication of malaria in which the Plasmodium falciparum parasite infects capillaries that flow through the tissues of the brain — can be difficult, as patients can be unconscious and have a number of other illnesses.

Now researchers have found that certain changes on the retina, the light sensitive tissue at the back of the eye, are unique to severe forms of malaria.