Introduction:
Cerebellar ataxia (CA) is a neurological condition involving a loss of coordination caused by a dysfunction in the cerebellum of the brain [1]. It can be caused by a variety of conditions such as stroke, tumours, toxins, and infections with different diseases such as arboviral diseases and malaria [2]. Sudan is endemic with several infectious diseases that are involved in the development of CA including COVID-19 [3,4], arboviruses such as Chikungunya [5,6], Crimean-Congo Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF) [7], dengue [8,9,10], Rift Valley fever [11,12,13], West Nile virus [14, 15], Zika [15, 16], and Yellow fever [15, 17] as well as emerging infectious diseases like schistosomiasis, TB, and different fungal infection [18,19]. Furthermore, malaria is hyper endemic in Sudan [20] and in addition to it is major role in the development of CA, it involves in several other neurological disorders [21].
Delayed cerebellar ataxia following malaria was first described by Senanayake et al in Sri Lanka in 1984 and is an acute, transient condition that occurs following the resolution of the pyrexial phase of malaria or as a side effect of anti-malarial drugs [22]. In this report, we discuss delayed cerebellar ataxia as a complication of aP. falciparum malarial infection and highlight the importance of considering it in the differential diagnosis, especially in malaria-endemic regions.