Although Plasmodium vivax infection is a frequent cause of malaria worldwide, severe presentations have been more regularly described only in recent years. In this setting, despite clinical descriptions of multi-organ involvement, data associating it with kidney dysfunction are relatively scarce. Here, renal dysfunction is retrospectively analyzed in a large cohort of vivax malaria patients with an attempt to dissect its association with disease severity and mortality, and to determine the role of inflammation in its progression.