Malaria: An In-Depth Look at This Global Health Challenge

What is it?

Malaria is the most important parasitic disease in the world. The terms malaria or malaria are used interchangeably.

Malaria is responsible for the death of more than a million people a year, most of them children in Africa. The disease is caused by a parasite of the genus Plasmodium, and is transmitted by the bite of the Anopheles mosquito. These mosquitoes live in temperate and tropical zones. The mosquito bites indoors at night and rests on walls and ceilings during the day.

Malaria or malaria is distributed in the following areas: Central America and the northern half of South America, Africa, India and Southeast Asia.

Imported cases can occur in countries in other areas due to people's travel or emigration.

How is it produced?

There are many species of Plasmodium, but only 4 affect man: P. falciparum is responsible for the most serious forms of malaria. The other species are: P. Vivax, P. Ovale and P. Malariae.

The infected mosquito bites humans and transmits the parasite. The parasite reaches the liver through the bloodstream. In the liver, it multiplies and after several days or weeks (on average about 10 days), thousands of parasites will begin to be released into the bloodstream. There, the young forms of plasmodium will enter the red blood cells or red blood cells. Inside the red blood cells, the parasite has just matured and grown, and later breaks the red blood cell and passes into the blood again. This process is cyclical and can take several weeks.

Symptoms

Uncomplicated malaria usually gives initial flu-like symptoms, with muscle aches, headaches, fatigue, etc.

Fever is the guiding symptom of the disease: at first it may be irregular but within a week the classic pattern of malaria appears: first it appears cold and shivering, later the high fever rises and ends with a lot of sweating. This is repeated cyclically every 48 hours (tertian fever) or every 72 hours (quartan fever) depending on the special plasmodium.

Complicated malaria: the main complication and cause of death of malaria is brain involvement. In cerebral malaria, a deep coma and seizures appear that can lead to death. Only the falciparum species causes cerebral malaria.

Other complications are severe anemia, bleeding, or kidney failure among others.

Diagnosis

It is done through the thick film: blood is drawn from the affected person, stained and viewed under the microscope. If the parasites are seen, the diagnosis is already made. It is a simple and cheap method, available anywhere in the world.

Treatment

The treatment of malaria is with drugs called antimalarials. There are several types, such as chloroquine, quinine, mefloquine, and others. The choice of one or the other drug depends on the area where the person has been infected and the resistance to chloroquine in that area.

It is essential to identify the symptoms of the disease in order to establish treatment as soon as possible, since with treatment complications and mortality are reduced. This is especially important for the child population in areas with the most severe forms of malaria, caused by P. falciparum.

Precautionary measures

On the one hand, measures must be taken to avoid the mosquito bite: sleeping under mosquito nets, use of repellants, as well as measures to control the mosquito in endemic areas (use of residual insecticides inside the houses).

For travelers to areas with malaria, it is also advisable to take antimalarials from before starting the trip and up to a few weeks after returning. The choice of the specific drug will depend on the area visited. You have to go to an international vaccination center before your trip to find out.

The malaria vaccine is in development. In fact, there are already the first vaccines with promising results, although at the moment they are in the clinical trial phase and are not marketed.