[Imported malaria: 6 cases, 2 of them with an erythrocyte glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency].

We present six cases of imported malaria in Spanish and foreign patients who had visited or lived in areas of malaria endemic. Two patients presented deficit of erythrocytic glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase. The main aspects of these two pathologies are analyzed, stressing their similar geographic distribution and the mechanisms by which such deficit protects against the malaria infection. In addition, we describe the problems that may arise with the use of anti-malaria in carriers of this enzymatic deficit; in our patients, the use of chloroquine did not raise any problem.