A 75-year-old missionary with fever, splenomegaly and pancytopenia

We present a case of hyperreactive malarial splenomegaly, a disease which is exceptional in Caucasian people, but which is expected to become more important since the increasing number of travelling to tropical areas. It is the chronic stage of an abnormal long-term stimulation of the immune system secondary to plasmodial infection. Diagnostic criteria include long-term stay in an endemic zone, large splenomegaly and overproduction of both IgM and IgG antibodies. The disease can be treated by a short-term antimalarial therapy as long as the patient resides out of a malarial endemic country.