Malaria VA disability rating & claim guide

Yes. The VA rates Malaria under VASRD diagnostic code 6304 (Infectious Diseases and Immune Disorders). DC 6304 no longer has a ladder of its own. The schedule sends malaria to the General Rating Formula for Infectious Diseases, which pays 100 percent for active disease and 0 percent for the infection once it has resolved. That is not the end of the claim: the same formula says to rate any residual disability of the infection within the appropriate body system, and DC 6304’s own note names liver or splenic damage and central nervous system conditions as examples. So a veteran whose malaria is behind them is rated on what it left, under those codes, rather than on the malaria.

Possible VA ratings for Malaria are 100%, 0%. The 0% level comes from 38 CFR 4.31, which assigns it wherever no compensable level is met. Examples: 100%: For active disease; 0%: After active disease has resolved, rate at 0 percent for infection. Rate any residual disability of infection within the appropriate body system.

Strong evidence for a Malaria claim includes: The laboratory record that identified the parasite. Note (1) makes the diagnosis depend on identification of malarial parasites in blood smears, or on antigen detection, immunologic (immunochromatographic) or molecular testing such as PCR — initially and again for any relapse; Dates on which the disease was active. 100 percent is paid for active disease and nothing else under this code, so what the rating turns on is when the infection was active and for how long; Records of liver or spleen involvement. Note (2) names both as residuals, and they are rated under the digestive and hemic systems rather than here; Records of any central nervous system effects. Note (2) names them too, and they carry their own neurological codes.

VA's Infectious Diseases (other than HIV-related illness chronic fatigue syndrome and tuberculosis) Disability Benefits Questionnaire (DBQ) is on its public list of DBQs. VA's page says: "You can use these forms to submit medical evidence from your health care providers."

Common pitfalls when filing for Malaria: Expecting a standing evaluation for a past infection. The schedule was amended and DC 6304 no longer pays for a history of malaria or for a relapse within a set window — it pays for active disease, then 0 percent; Filing only for malaria. The formula directs the residuals to the appropriate body system, so the residuals have to be claimed as their own conditions to be rated at all; Treating the 0 percent as a denial. A 0 percent evaluation is still service connection, and it is what carries the residuals and any future increase; Assuming presumptive service connection needs no evidence of the disease. 38 CFR 3.307(a)(4) governs the tropical diseases listed at 38 CFR 3.309(b), and Note (1) still decides what counts as the diagnosis.

Yes, for a veteran who meets a presumption's conditions. 38 CFR 3.309(b) names "Malaria" among the tropical diseases, for a veteran with 90 days or more of continuous active service in a war period or after December 31, 1946, whose service was tropical, if it became manifest to a degree of 10 percent or more within one year of separation, or when standard accepted treatises place the start of its incubation period during service (38 CFR 3.307(a)(1) and (4)). 38 CFR 3.317(c) names "Malaria" among the infectious diseases, for a veteran with service in the Southwest Asia theater of operations during the Persian Gulf War or in Afghanistan on or after September 19, 2001, if it became manifest to a degree of 10 percent or more within the time limits of 38 CFR 3.317(c)(3)(i). For malaria that window is one year, or when standard or accepted treatises place the start of its incubation period during that service. Each presumption gives way to affirmative evidence to the contrary (38 CFR 3.307(d); 38 CFR 3.317(c)(4)).

Conditions that can be service-connected as secondary to Malaria, when a medical opinion links them, include: Chronic Liver Disease Without Cirrhosis. A secondary condition gets its own rating, which VA combines with the veteran's other ratings under 38 CFR 4.25.

No. The schedule was amended and DC 6304 now carries a single instruction - evaluate under the General Rating Formula - which pays 100 percent for active disease and, after active disease has resolved, 0 percent for the infection. There is no longer a tier for a relapse within a set window or for a history of the disease. The rest of the claim moves to the residuals: DC 6304's Note (2) directs any residual disability of infection to be rated under the appropriate body system and names liver or splenic damage and central nervous system conditions as examples. Note (1) is worth reading alongside it, because it applies to a relapse as much as to the first diagnosis - the diagnosis depends on identification of malarial parasites in blood smears or on antigen detection, immunologic, or molecular testing such as PCR.