Errors in diagnosis
Failure to think of malaria in a patient with either typical or atypical illness
Failure to elicit a history of exposure (travel history) - including travel within a country with variable transmission
Misjudgement of severity
Failure to do a thick blood film in a non-immune patient
Failure to identify P. falciparum in a dual infection with P. vivax (the latter may be more obvious)
Missed hypoglycaemia
Failure to diagnose other associated infections (bacterial, viral, etc.) Misdiagnosis (e.g. influenza, viral encephalitis, hepatitis, scrub typhus, etc.)
Failure to recognize respiratory distress (metabolic acidosis)
Failure to carry out an ophthalmoscopic examination for the presence of papilloedema, and retinal haemorrhages in adults.

Errors in management
Inadequate nursing care (see page 10)
Delay in starting antimalarial therapy
Use of inappropriate therapy:

- chloroquine in areas of resistance
- unjustified withholding of an antimalarial drug
- dosage not correctly calculated
- inappropriate route of administration (see inside front cover flap)
- unjustified cessation of treatment
- failure to prevent cumulative effects of antimalarial drugs
- failure to switch patients from parenteral to oral therapy as soon as they can take oral medication
- unnecessary continuation of chemotherapy beyond the recommended length of treatment (see inside front cover flap)
- use of unproven and potentially dangerous ancillary treatment
- failure to review antimalarial treatment in a patient whose condition is deteriorating
Errors of fluid and electrolyte replacement
- failure to control the rate of intravenous infusion

Failure to elicit a history of recent chemotherapy
Failure to identify or treat metabolic acidosis
Unnecessary endotracheal intubation
Unduly delayed endotracheal intubation (where this is indicated and possible)
Failure to control convulsions
Failure to recognize minor (“subtle”) convulsions
Failure to recognize and treat severe anaemia
Delay in considering obstetrical intervention in late pregnancy
Failure to recognize and manage pulmonary oedema
Undue delay in starting peritoneal dialysis or haemodialysis
Failure to pass a nasogastric tube to prevent aspiration pneumonia
Failure to give antibiotics as a covering procedure if the decision is made to delay lumbar puncture.