Malaria - symptom, Treatment of Malaria

Malaria Information

This common relapsing fever is endemic in many areas of the world, including India. Malaria is caused by infestation with the parasite Plasmodium, several species of which cause variants of the disease. Plasmodium has a complicated life-cycle, with the Anopheles mosquito as an insect vector (carrier).

Present-day treatment of malaria is complicated by the many drug-resistant strains of the parasite that have emerged due to
unwise prescribing and genetic mutation.

Endemic areas where malaria was almost a state of mind are now showing up dangerous forms of the disease that kill swiftly
and brutally.

The common perception of malaria is changing: from a long-standing lingering illness it has metamorphosed into a short-lived, often fatal one.

How Malaria is spread?

A person is infected by the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito when saliva containing Plasmodium sporozoites is
injected into the bloodstream. These sporozoites are carried to the liver, where they reproduce within liver cells: a single sporozoite forming as many as 10,000 daughter forms. These butst out into the bloodstream and invade the red blood
cells. In the next 48-72 hours the parasite eats up all the hemoglobin in the cell. The RBC now ruptUres. This floods the bloodstream with multiple Plasmodium daughter forms; and the cycle repeats.

When a mosquito bites an infected human being, it drinks in blood thick with parasite-ridden cells as well, and sets off the
second phase in the life-cycle of Plasmodium within the mosquito.

Symptoms of malaria

• Fever,high and relapsing, often calledtertiary or quartan fever, depending on whether spikes of fever recur every the 3rd
  or 4th day.
• The appearance of fever correspondsto the releaseof parasites from the destroyed RBCs.
• In endemic areas, fever may be mild, with a sense of"feeling ill" being the main complaint.
• Headache, bodyache are common.
• Anemia is often what brings the patient to medical attention.
• Severe malaria, a life-threatening condition, is most often caused by P.falciparum infection.
• Cerebral malaria is complicated by a change in consciousness, and further affects the functioning of all the vital organs.

Diagnosis and Treatment of Malaria

Is made on blood tests. Thick and thin slide smears will show up the parasite under direct vision. Special tests have been developed for demonstrating falciparum infection.

Is with anti-malarial drugs, oral or injectable, depending on the type of malaria and state of the patient. Complications of severe malaria require intensive supportive treatment in hospital.

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