Malaria

Malaria is a prehistoric disease that was diagnosed by Dr. LEORN for the first time. Malarial germs are classified into four categories i.e: 1. Plasmodium Malaria, 2. Plasmodium Vivax, 3. P.Falciparum and 4. Plasmodium Ovale. Plasmodium Ovale and Plasmodium Vivax complete their cycle in 48hours, while Plasmodium Malaria covers its cycle in 72 hours but Plasmodium Folic Perum causes fever daily. Malarial Parasites are the result of Spurocytes and Gamocytes and its treatment requires at least one month. Malarial symptoms are high fever, vomiting and shuddering of body. Chloroquine is used for the treatment of Malaria, Fansidar tablets should also be taken thrice a day.

Malaria

(Tropical Diseases, Parasitic Infection)

In this factsheet:

• The Facts on Malaria
• Causes of Malaria
• Symptoms and Complications of Malaria
• Diagnosing Malaria
• Treating and Preventing Malaria

The Facts on Malaria

Malaria is a parasitic infection spread by Anopheles mosquitoes. The Plasmodium parasite that causes malaria is neither a virus nor a bacterium - it is a single-celled parasite that multiplies in red blood cells of humans as well as in the mosquito intestine.
When the female mosquito feeds on an infected person, male and female forms of the parasite are ingested from human blood. Subsequently, the male and female forms of the parasite meet and mate in the mosquito gut, and the infective forms are passed into another human when the mosquito feeds again.
Malaria is a significant global problem. There are approximately 216 million cases of the disease worldwide, killing about 655,000 people every year. Malaria is prevalent in Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Central South America, Hispaniola (Haiti and the Dominican Republic), and Oceania (Papua New Guinea, Irian Jaya, and the Solomon Islands).
Each year, up to 1 million Canadians travel to malaria-endemic areas. This results in 350 to 1,000 annual cases of malaria in Canada.
Although the parasite has progressively developed resistance to several older antimalarial medications, there are still many safe and effective medications both for treatment and prevention.
There are four species of the Plasmodium parasite that can cause malaria in humans: P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae. The first two types are the most common. Plasmodium falciparum is the most dangerous of these parasites because the infection can kill rapidly (within several days), whereas the other species cause illness but not death. Falciparum malaria is particularly frequent in sub-Saharan Africa and Oceania.

Causes of Malaria

You can only get malaria if you're bitten by an infected mosquito, or if you receive infected blood from someone during a blood transfusion. Malaria can also be transmitted from mother to child during pregnancy.
The mosquitoes that carry Plasmodium parasite get it from biting a person or animal that's already been infected. The parasite then goes through various changes that enable it to infect the next creature the mosquito bites. Once it's in you, it multiplies in the liver and changes again, getting ready to infect the next mosquito that bites you. It then enters the bloodstream and invades red blood cells. Eventually, the infected red blood cells burst. This sends the parasites throughout the body and causes symptoms of malaria.
Malaria has been with us long enough to have changed our genes. The reason why many people of African descent suffer from the blood disease sickle cell anemia is because the gene that causes it also confers some immunity to malaria. In Africa, people with a sickle cell gene are more likely to survive and have children. The same is true of thalassemia, a hereditary disease found in people of Mediterranean, Asian, or African American descent. (See the article on "Anemia" for more information.)