What is Malaria?

Malaria is a disease produced by a parasite. The parasite transmits to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes. Those with it often feel very ill, with a high fever and chills.

Each year, about 210 million people become infected with malaria, and approximately 440,000 die from the sickness. Most of the persons who die from the disease are young children from Africa.

Although the disease is rare in temperate climates, it is common in tropical and subtropical countries.

World health officials are trying to decrease their incidence by distributing mosquito nets to protect people who suffer from mosquito bites while sleeping. Scientists from around the world occupy with developing a vaccine to prevent malaria.

What are the Symptoms of Malaria?

The following signs and symptoms usually characterize malaria infection:

Fever
Shaking chills
Headache
Nausea and vomiting
And also muscle pain and fatigue.

Other signs and symptoms may include:

Sweating
Abdominal pain or chest pain
And also, cough

Some people with malaria knowledge cycle of it “attacks.” An attack usually begins with shaking and chills, accompanied by a high fever, sweating, and average temperature returns.

The signs and symptoms of malaria usually appear within a few weeks after being bitten by a sick mosquito. However, some kinds of it parasites can remain dormant in the body for up to a year.

What are the Causes of Malaria?

It originates from a type of microscopic parasite. The parasite most commonly transmits to humans through mosquito bites.

1. Mosquito Transmission Cycle

Mosquito not infected: A mosquito becomes infected when it feeds on a person with malaria.

Transmission of the parasite: If the mosquito bites you in the future, it can transmit the malaria parasite.

In the liver: Once the parasite enters your body, it travels to the liver, where some types of parasites can remain inactive for to a year.

In the bloodstream: When the parasites mature, they leave the liver and infect red blood cells. And also, it is when people usually show symptoms of malaria.

Transmission to the next person: If an uninfected mosquito bites you at this stage of the cycle, it will become infected with your parasites and can transmit them to the next person it bites.

2. Other Modes of Transmission

Because the parasites that cause malaria distress red blood cells, people can also get malaria from exposure to infected blood; this includes:

From mother to unborn baby
Through a blood transfusion
By sharing needles used to inject drugs

Risk Factors of Malaria

The most significant risk factor for developing malaria is living in or visiting areas where the disease is common. There are many different changes in malaria parasites. The sort that causes the most severe complications most commonly found in the following areas:

African countries south of the Sahara desert
The Asian subcontinent
New Guinea, Dominican Republic, and Haiti

1. More Serious Disease Risks

People at higher risk for severe infection include the following:

Toddlers and babies
Older adults
Travelers coming from areas without it
And also, pregnant women and their unborn children

Poverty, lack of information, and little or no access to health care also contribute to deaths worldwide.

2. Immunity May Decrease

Residents of a malaria region may expose to the disease so frequently that they develop partial immunity.

It can reduce the intensity of symptoms. But this partial immunity can disappear if you move to a country where you are no longer frequently exposed to the parasite.

Complications of Malaria

It can be deadly, mainly that product of various common parasites in tropical parts of Africa. The Centers for Disease Control and Stoppage approximate that 91 percent of all malaria deaths occur in Africa, commonly in children under 5.

In most cases, deaths from malaria relate to one or more severe complications, which include the following:

1. Cerebral Malaria

If blood cells with parasites block the brain’s small blood vessels (cerebral malaria), brain swelling or brain damage can occur. And also, cerebral malaria can cause seizures and coma.

2. Respiration Problems

Accumulated unsolidified in the lungs (pulmonary edema) can make it difficult to breathe.

3. Organ Failure

It can cause the kidneys or liver to fail or the spleen to burst. Any of these diseases can be life-threatening.

4. Anemia

And also, malaria affects red blood cells, which can lead to anemia.

5. Low Blood Sugar Level

The severe forms of malaria can cause low blood sugar (hypoglycemia), as can quinine, one of the drugs commonly used to fight malaria. Very low blood sugar can lead to coma or death.

6. Can Come Back

Some varieties of the malaria parasite, which characteristically cause milder forms of the disease, can persist for years and cause relapses.

What is the Prevention of Malaria?

If you live or travel to a zone where malaria is common, take precautions to avoid being bitten by mosquitoes. Mosquitoes are most dynamic between dusk and dawn. To keep yourself from mosquito bites, you should:

Cover your skin: Wear long-sleeved pants and shirts.

Apply insect revolting to your skin and clothes: Sprays containing diethyltoluamide can use on the skin, and sprays covering permethrin are safe to apply to clothing.

Sleep under a mosquito net: Mosquito nets, particularly those treated with insecticide, help prevent mosquito bites while you sleep.

Preventive Medicine

If you are traveling to a residence where it is frequent, talk to your doctor a few months in advance to ask if you should take medication before, during, or after the trip to protect yourself from malaria parasites.
Generally, the drugs used to stop malaria are the same as those used to treat the disease.
Your doctor requirements to know when and where you will be traveling, to help you assess your risk of infection and, if necessary, prescribe the drug that works best for the most common type of malaria parasite in that region.

Diagnosis of Malaria

To diagnose malaria, your doctor may review your medical history, perform a physical exam, and order a blood test. Blood tests are the only method to check the diagnosis. There are some types of blood tests that help the doctor by showing the following:

The attendance of the parasite in the blood to confirm that you have it
What type of malaria parasite causes the symptoms
If the infection caused by a parasite resistant to certain drugs
Other blood tests help determine if the disease causes any severe complications.

Some blood tests can take bad days to complete, while others return results less than 15 minutes.

What is the Treatment of Malaria?

It treats with prescription drugs that kill the parasite. The type of medications and the duration of treatment will vary based on the following:

What type of malaria parasite do you have
The severity of your symptoms
And also, Age
If you are pregnant

1. Medicines

The most common antimalarial medications include the following:

Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT): Artemisinin-based combination therapies are often the first-line treatment for malaria. There are several different types of artemisinin-based combination therapies. Some examples include artemether-lumefantrine (Coartem) and artesunate / amodiaquine. Each artemisinin-based combination therapy combines two or more drugs that fight its parasites in different ways.

Chloroquine phosphate: Chloroquine is the treatment of choice for any drug-sensitive parasite. However, in many parts of the world, the parasites that cause malaria are resistant to chloroquine, so the drug is no longer an effective treatment.

Other antimalarial medications include the following:

A combination of atovaquone and proguanil (Malarone)
Quinine sulfate (Qualaquin) with doxycycline (Vibramycin, Monodox, etc.)
Mefloquine
And also, Primaquine phosphate.

2. Possible Future Treatments

New antimalarial drugs being researched and developed—the treatment of mark by a constant struggle between drug-resistant parasites’ evolution.

For example, a variety of it parasite demonstrated resistance to almost all available antimalarial drugs.

When to See the Doctor

Talk to your doctor if you are knowledge a fever while living or traveling in a high-risk region. The parasites that cause it can remain dormant in the body for up to a year.

And also, if you have simple symptoms, seek emergency medical care.

Conclusion

It treats with prescription drugs that kill the parasite. And also, it can cause the kidneys or liver to fail or the spleen to burst.

Many parasites are now resistant to drugs that are commonly used to treat the disease.

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What is Malaria? – Symptoms, Causes, Risk Factors, and More