Is malaria a contagious disease?
What are the signs and symptoms of malaria?
Is malaria a particular problem during pregnancy?
You and your family can prevent malaria by
Malaria is a severe and occasionally deadly disease caused by a parasite. It frequently contaminates a certain kind of mosquito which feeds on humans. People who get malaria are usually very sick with high fevers, shaking chills, and flu-like illness.
Four kinds of malaria parasites can infect humans: Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae. If not treated as soon as possible, infection with P.falciparum, can bring about death. Though malaria can be a fatal disease, illness and death from malaria can usually be restrained.
It is prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions, including places of the America (22 countries), Asia, and Africa. Every year, there are around 350–500 million instances of malaria, killing between one and three million people, the greater part of whom are young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
For instance, in Africa, a child dies from malaria in every 30 seconds. Malaria causes a large amount of illness and death. The disease causes immense strain on several national economies.
How is malaria transmitted?
Generally, people get malaria by being bitten by an infective female Anopheles mosquito. Only Anopheles mosquitoes can transmit malaria. They must have been infected through a prior blood meal sucked on a contaminated person. The process is like that a mosquito bites an infected person, a little amount of blood is obtained in which microscopic malaria parasites are present naturally. After 1 week, when the mosquito takes its next blood meal, these parasites blend with the mosquito\’s saliva are infused into the person being bitten.
Malaria can also be transmitted through blood transfusion, organ transplant, or the shared use of needles or syringes contaminated with blood because malaria parasite is present in the red blood cell of an infected person. Malaria can also be spread from a mother to her unborn baby before or during delivery (\”congenital\” malaria).
Is malaria a contagious disease?
No. Malaria is not contaminated from person to person like a common cold or the flu, and it cannot be sexually transmitted. You are not at risk of getting malaria from casual contact with malaria-infected people, like sitting next to someone who has malaria.
What are the signs and symptoms of malaria?
Fever, chills, muscle aches, and headache are the most common symptoms of malaria. Some patients can suffer from nausea, vomiting, cough, and diarrhea. Cycles of chills, fever, and sweating that reappears every one, two, or three days are typical. Occasionally there can be vomiting, diarrhea, coughing, and yellowing (jaundice) of the skin and whites of the eyes due to demolition of red blood cells and liver cells.
People with chronic P. falciparum malaria can experience bleeding problems, shock, liver or kidney failure, central nervous system problems, coma, and can die from the infection or its complications. Cerebral malaria (coma, or altered mental status or seizures) can bring about critical P. falciparum infection. It is deadly if not taking care of promptly. Even with treatment, about 15%-20% people may die.
How is malaria diagnosed?
The definite method to know whether you have malaria is to have a diagnostic test. To detect the presence of malaria parasites in your blood a drop of your blood is examined under the microscope. If you are week or have flu like symptoms and there is any suspicion of malaria (for example, if you have recently traveled in a malaria-risk area) the test must be performed without any hesitation
If one gets the positive result of his/her blood test, the patient should be treated as early as possible with a safe and effective anti-malarial medicine. Effective treatment should be started within 24 hours of the arrival of symptoms, to avoid development to lethal malaria which is connected with a high case casualty rate.
How is malaria treated?
Three major factors predominate the treatments: the infecting species of Plasmodium parasite, the clinical situation of the patient (for example, adult, child, or pregnant female with either mild or severe malaria), and the drug susceptibility of the infecting parasites. Drug susceptibility is determined by the geographic area where the infection was acquired.
Malaria exists in diverse areas of the world and that can be prevented by certain medications. The proper drugs for each type of malaria must be recommended by a physician who is aware of malaria treatment protocols. Since people infected with P. falciparum malaria can die (often because of delayed treatment), immediate treatment for P. falciparum malaria is first and foremost thing.
Mild malaria can be treated with oral medication; severe malaria (one or more symptoms of either impaired consciousness/coma, severe anemia, renal failure, pulmonary edema, acute respiratory distress syndrome, shock, disseminated intravascular coagulation, spontaneous bleeding, acidosis, hemoglobinuria [hemoglobin in the urine], jaundice, repeated generalized convulsions, and/or parasitemia [parasites in the blood] of > 5%) needs intravenous (IV) drug treatment and fluids.
Drug treatment of malaria is not always easy. Chloroquine phosphate is the drug of choice for all malarial parasites except for chloroquine-resistant Plasmodium strains. Although nearly all strains of P. malariae are predisposed to chloroquine, P. falciparum, P. vivax and even some P. ovale strains have been reported as resistant to chloroquine. Unfortunately, resistance is usually noted by drug-treatment failure in the individual patient. There are, however, numerous drug-treatment protocols for treatment of drug resistant Plasmodium strains (for example, quinine sulfate plus doxycycline [Vibramycin, Oracea, Adoxa, Atridox] or tetracycline [Achromycin], or clindamycin [Cleocin], or atovaquone-proguanil [Malarone]). There are specialized labs that can check the patient\’s parasites for resistance, but this is not done often. Accordingly, treatment is generally based on the majority of Plasmodium species identified and its general drug-resistance outline for the country or world region where the patient became infected. For example, P. falciparum acquired in the Middle East countries is typically subject to chloroquine, but if obtained in sub-Sahara African countries, is usually resistant to chloroquine
Is malaria a particular problem during pregnancy?
Yes. Malaria can create a grave hazard to a pregnant woman and her pregnancy. Malaria infection in pregnant women may be more fatal than in women who are not pregnant. Malaria may also augments the risk of problems with the pregnancy, including prematurity, abortion, and stillbirth.
Treatment of malaria in the pregnant female is related to the usual treatment stated above; however, drugs like primaquine (Primaquine), tetracycline (Achromycin, Sumycin), doxycycline, and halofantrine (Halfan) are not suggested as they may injure the fetus.
You and your family can prevent malaria by:
- Stay away from exposure to mosquitoes during the early morning and early evening hours between the hours of dusk and dawn (the hours of maximum mosquito activity).
- Taking antimalarial drugs to destroy the parasites
- Spraying insecticides on your home\’s walls to kill adult mosquitoes that come inside the room.
- Sleeping under bed nets – especially effective if they have been treated with insecticide.
- Using insect repellent regularly particularly at night.
- Wear appropriate clothing that will cover maximum parts of your body (long-sleeved shirts and long pants, for examples) especially when you are outside.
- Shut down the doors and windows of your house in early evening for around 2or 3 hours.
If you are deciding to travel to a malaria-prone region, check out which medications you require to take, and take them as prescribed or consult with your doctor if you have any doubt. Recent CDC recommendations suggest individuals start taking antimalarial drugs about one to two weeks before traveling to a malaria infested area and for four weeks after leaving the place.