subject: Malaria Causes and its Treatment [print this page] Malaria Causes and its Treatment
Malaria causes due to bite of mosquito named as Anopheles mosquito. The malaria causing Plasmodium parasite is transmitted via the bite of infected mosquitoes from one human to another and infects the Red Blood Cells.
Malaria causes basically due to four types of parasite which are Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae among these four Plasmodium falciparum is more commonly occurring and produces severe symptoms.
Malaria is widely spread in areas of Asia, Sub-Saharan Africa, Central and South America and the Indian subcontinent. The travelers to these countries are at risk of developing the disease.
Malaria causes high fever with chills, pain and sweating headed by the major ones like vomiting, jaundice, diarrhea, convulsions and anemia. People with malaria can also die of its severe complications.
The symptoms of Malaria are usually visible after 8 days to 3 weeks of infection and can appear after as long as one year. Pregnant women and children below the age group of 5 years are more prone to Malaria.
The symptoms of Malaria are similar to many other diseases like typhoid, dengue, cholera, yellow fever and filariasis so sometimes it becomes difficult for physicians to diagnose on the basis of clinical symptoms therefore Blood Smear and Malaria antibody blood test may be required for confirmation.
Malaria Treatment
The spread of Malaria can be reduced by controlling the growth of mosquitoes and preventing mosquito bites by using some protective aids like wearing protecting clothes, using mosquito repellent creams, bed nets and by spraying insecticides in areas where water is stagnant like bird baths, drains, water coolers, old tires, small pits etc.
Chloroquine is the most common drug used in the Malaria treatment. The medicines prescribed by the physicians depend on area to area since few malaria types are resistant to certain medicines. The other drugs for Malaria treatment are mefloquine, doxycycline, hydroxychoroquine, primaquine or malarone. Severe Malaria requires hospital admission to administer IV fluids and to provide respiratory support. However the improvement in symptoms can be seen after 48 hours of drug administration and fever subsides by 96 hours of Malaria treatment.
The prognosis of Malaria is good; most of the people recover without any problem. The infections of P falciparum shows poor prognosis with increase rate of mortality if left untreated.
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