Facts about Malaria
Malaria highly threatens individuals’ lives with its transmission occurring when infected Anopheles mosquitoes bite people (5). The insects pierce individuals and release Plasmodium parasites into the bloodstream The parasites travel to the liver, where they mature, then return into the bloodstream and infect the red blood cells. Plasmodium multiplies, and the infected cells burst, leading to Malaria symptoms (4). Therefore, the ailment only happens when mosquitoes infected with Plasmodium bite people (4). Malaria damages children’s brains leading to extensive anemia as the kids develop rapidly.
The Causes of Malaria
Malaria is an illness that seriously troubles tropical nations’ health professionals. The parasites that cause malaria are Plasmodium Falciparum, Ovale, Malariae, and Vivax (2). The former causes the most severe form of malaria, and, therefore, those it infects might die. Since the ailment transmission occurs by blood, people can get it through organ transplant and transfusion. Cerebral malaria damages the brain, while acute malaria results in severe headaches where patients can regrettably die if not treated.
The Malaria Symptoms
People feel the malaria symptoms several days after the Plasmodium parasite infects the red blood cells. According to Omodara et al. (4), the symptoms develop between 5 and 15 days after an individual gets infected. People might prolong the disease’s incubation time by taking preventive medicines or having immunity because of earlier infections (4). The most common malaria symptoms comprise profuse sweating, abdominal pain, high fever, diarrhea, vomiting, anemia, and muscle ache.
The Diagnosis of Malaria
Health professionals specialize in diagnosing several diseases that including malaria. Usually, sick individuals book appointments with their doctors who examine their health history and confirm whether the patients traveled to a tropical country recently. Health professionals also perform physical examinations to establish whether a sick individual has an inflamed liver. If a patient has malaria symptoms, the doctor might ask for more blood tests to verify the diagnosis (3). Moreover, if a sick individual has malaria, the analysis shows its type and whether the illness has caused anemia. When doctors diagnose and treat the disease early, they prevent people’s likelihood of dying in large numbers.
The Complications of Malaria
Malaria has several complications that highly threaten the lives of people. Some of them include low blood sugar and the brain blood vessels’ inflammation, which causes cerebral malaria. Furthermore, individuals can get anemia when the red blood cells get destroyed. Omodara et al. (4) assert that “malaria is typically diagnosed by the microscope examination of blood using blood film or with antigen-based rapid diagnostic test” (p. 3202). This microscopy helps doctors in determining the exact malaria species that the rapid diagnostic test detected.
The Complications of Malaria Continued
Some fluids can accumulate in the lungs and result in death. In the early days, specialists considered malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax easily manageable as its infection was milder than that of falciparum (3). However, Malaria from Plasmodium vivax might lead to complications resulting in high mortality. This parasite’s death rate ranges between 0.1 to 1.6 percent in the whole world, and thus, it should be as closely monitored as Plasmodium falciparum to reduce the fatalities (3). Therefore, doctors ought to diagnose the disease early to treat and prevent its deadly outcomes.
Treatment of Malaria
Doctors treat patients with malaria in hospitals, and they prescribe medicine depending on the type of parasite, which has infected an individual. Sometimes a parasite may resist drugs, and thus, the disease is not cleared. Plasmodium Ovale and Vivax live in a patient’s body for a long time (1). Therefore, the parasites reactivate afterward and result in the infection’s relapse. In such cases, doctors might change medications or use several of them to treat the sick individual (4). Health professionals treat malaria by combining anti-malarial drugs with Doxycycline.
The Long-Term Perspective for Individuals with Malaria
The most effective treatment of malaria is using Artemisinin when Plasmodium falciparum causes the disease. However, people may treat it using plants such as Morinda Lucida and Carica Papaya leaves (4). Those treated eventually have excellent long-term perspectives unless complications reappear. The repetition of such problems causes adverse effects such as cerebral malaria, and people have a highly terrible long-term perspective. Sometimes, there might be a relapse, specific to Plasmodium Ovale and Vivax (4). The relapse happens when the parasite goes back into the bloodstream.
References
Bichara C, Flahaut P, Costa D, Bienvenu AL, Picot S, Gargala G. Cryptic plasmodium ovale concurrent with mixed plasmodium falciparum, and plasmodium malariae infection in two children from the Central African Republic. Malar J. 2017; 16(1):1-4. Web.
Loddo A, Ruberto CD, Kocher M, Prod’Hom G. MP-IDB: The malaria parasite image database for image processing and analysis [unpublished manuscript]. University of Cagliari. n.d.; 1-8.
Mukry SN, Saud M, Sufaida G, Shaikh K, Naz A, Shamsi TS. Laboratory diagnosis of malaria: comparison of manual and automated diagnostic tests. Can J Infect Dis Med Microbiol. 2017; 2017: 1-7. Web.
Omodara NB, Olarinoye NO, Oloyede HO, Oyebade A. Malaria a silent killer disease: causes, prevention, and curative action of drugs and herbs. Int J Adv Res Sci Eng Technol. 2017; 4(1): 3202-3208.
White NJ. Anemia and malaria. Malar J. 2018; 17(1):1-7. Web.