Malaria – Causes, Symptoms, Treatment

What is malaria

Malaria – a name that we have often heard. But do you know that it is the world’s single largest killer of children and pregnant women. Each year, millions of people die from malaria. The fact responsible for such death rate is the inability of people for the prevention and treatment of this disease. The truth is that this disease is completely preventable and treatable.  Malaria is also a major public health problem in India.  This disease called malaria is an infectious disease which is cause by the bite of mosquitoes. The disease is commonly found in the tropical and subtropical regions and also includes regions of America, Asia, and Africa.  The doctors come across approximately 350–500 million cases of malaria each year. Most of the time, the young children get affected from the disease.  It is also a fact that ninety percent of deaths which are related to malaria, occur in sub-Saharan Africa. Many researchers also say that this disease is associated with poverty  and can also be a cause of poverty.

Types of malaria

Malaria is of four types. Out of these four species of malaria,  Plasmodium falciparum malaria is the most serious kind of malaria as it can be life-threatening.  Apart from this most dangerous one, the other three kinds of malaria include P. vivax malaria, P. malariae malaria and the P. ovale malaria. These three are not so dangerous and are also not life-threatening.

Cause of malaria

Malaria is cause by the Plasmodium parasite. This parasite infects our red blood cells and a patient suffers from malaria. In fact there is a whole life cycle of this parasite and this cycle is quite complicated. The cycle involves two hosts and these hosts are humans and the Anopheles mosquitoes. Now this disease called malaria begins in humans when an infected Anopheles mosquito bites somebody. Because through biting, the malaria parasites, that is, the sporozoites are transmitted into the human blood. Now these sporozoites start travelling into our body and passes through the liver, mature, and eventually they infect the red blood cells in humans.  In red blood cells, these parasites  develop again  until a mosquito takes a blood bite from a person who is infected and ingests human red blood cells which contains the parasites. Afterwards these parasites reach the stomach of Anopheles mosquito and  invade the mosquito salivary glands. Now when this Anopheles mosquito bites a human, the sporozoites complete and repeat the complex life cycle of Plasmodium.  The P. ovale and the P. vivax can again  complicate the cycle by producing hypnozoites.

Malaria symptoms

There are certain symptoms that can indicate that whether a person is suffering from malaria. These symptoms include include an illness just as we experience in flu, shivering and chills, pain in muscles and also the headache.  The other symptoms that can be found include nausea, vomiting, cough, and diarrhea. The chilling of body and fever along with sweating repeat every  two, or three days and this stage is quite typical. Sometimes the skin also becomes yellow in malaria and this symptom is just similar to that in jaundice. An extra whiteness may also appear in the eyes because of the destruction of red blood cells and liver cells.
 
Those people who suffer from severe stage of P. falciparum malaria can have bleeding problems and can sometimes face the failure of liver and kidney. There can be problems related to the central nervous system. The patient can even die due to the infection or its complications. The Cerebral malaria can also occur with severe P. falciparum infection. If this malaria is not treated in time it can become lethal.

Malaria treatment

Doctors keep three basic factors in mind while going for the treatment of a patient suffering from malaria. These three basic factors include the infecting species of Plasmodium parasite, the overall clinical situation of the patient who can be an adult, child, or pregnant female having  either mild or severe malaria and thirdly, infecting parasites’ drug  susceptibility.
 
The determination of drug susceptibility is done on the basis of the  geographic  area where the infection was caught. There are several types of malaria types in the world which are completely  resistant to few medications. Each type of malaria requires different type of medication and who knows it better than your doctor. The correct drugs should be given to the malaria patient. One should never try to treat himself without consulting with the doctor. Especially those people who are infected with P. falciparum malaria can die because of the delayed treatment. That is why the immediate treatment for P. falciparum malaria is necessary.
 
As far as the mild malaria is concerned, it can be treated with the help of oral medication. Severe malaria which includes symptoms like anemia or renal failure or pulmonary edema or other symptoms  require intravenous  drug treatment and also the fluids.