What is "blackwater fever"

blackwater \black"wa*ter\ n. any of several human or animal diseases characterized by dark urine resulting from rapid breakdown of red blood cells; -- used especially of

blackwater fever, a severe form of malaria caused by the blood parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

n. (context pathology English) A complication of malaria in which red blood cells burst in the bloodstream, consequently coloring the urine dark red or black.

n. severe and often fatal malaria characterized by kidney damage resulting in dark urine

(see PMID 23402997 and PMID 22931368)

Blackwater fever is a complication of malaria in which red blood cells burst in the bloodstream ( hemolysis), releasing hemoglobin directly into the blood vessels and into the urine, frequently leading to kidney failure. The disease was first linked to malaria by the Sierra Leonean physician Dr John Farrell Easmon in his 1884 pamphlet entitled The Nature and Treatment of Blackwater Fever. Easmon coined the name "blackwater fever" and was the first to successfully treat such cases following the publication of his pamphlet.