Malaria: Symptoms, Complications, Treatment and Prevention.

Being a mother of six year old, I am always worried about the health of my daughter. As she is growing I can’t stop her playing outside in garden as this is the major physical activity she does apart from indoor activities. Here comes the gardener into the picture who is giving water to plants making the water puddles. These puddles harbor lot of mosquito larvae which ultimately grow into blood sucking mosquitoes. I see as the sunset, the children in my garden starts crying about mosquito bites. We all moms have to take our kids in middle of the play with crying faces of kids. Recently in our society so many people suffered from Malaria. This made us realize that our garden water is a major cause of malaria being spread. Malaria symptoms were so evident that we had to admit many people from society in hospitals.

Let me tell you about malaria and its symptoms.

What is Malaria?

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a plasmodium parasite present in gut of female Anopheles mosquito. In 2016, there were 216 million cases of and, thousands of deaths due to malaria.

 Malaria symptoms :

Malaria symptoms usually it starts with a flu-like illness, with a high fever and chills and shivers.  Other than this patient may also get symptoms of malaria like vomiting and nausea, headaches, tiredness, body pain, weakness, and fatigue.

What are the complications?

Fatal situations may occur due to malaria infection. If Plasmodium falciparum have infected the person, symptoms may include: infection in brain (cerebral malaria), with seizures, confusion, and increasing tiredness leading to coma and death. If due to malaria any Fluid gets accumulated in the lungs it leads to pulmonary edema.  Sometime Kidney failure can occur if it damages the blood circulation system. Most dangerous is when a pregnant lady suffers from malaria

What is the treatment for malaria? Are there any vaccines available?

As we say prevention is better than cure in case of malaria we need to save ourselves from mosquito bites and take antimalarial medication, mainly Artemisinin Combined Therapy (ACT) as prescribed by doctors. The medicine will depend on a variety of factors, including age, kind of malaria parasite, and in cases of pregnant women. If fever doesn’t stop for days and it’s high as well as fluctuating, you must see doctors immediately for malaria fever symptoms.

Ps: As such there is no vaccine against malaria but one should take utmost care to prevent mosquito bites and malaria.

How can one find out if they have malaria?

First of all high fever itself is indication could be a lead to understand and to go for a test. Malaria is diagnosed by a rapid diagnostic test (RDT) or blood test. The malaria parasite in the blood sample under microscopy is a clear indication of disease. RDTs are often used when the sample has come from public health sector worker who is more prone to disease.  A nucleic acid amplification-based test is also kind of test done in case of place where malaria is uncommon.

How can malaria be prevented?

Malaria is affected by female Anopheles mosquito and parasite is transferred into the blood stream. It is very important to be protected by bites of mosquitoes, both inside and outside because a one bite by mosquito can cause you malaria. Before going to garden, we use mosquito repellents like GoodKnight fabric roll on or Goodknight patches to prevent mosquito bites. When we are at home, I always shut window before 6 pm and also the doors and windows in the evening, and use of household-level repellents like Goodknight Activ+ and Goodknight flash card will keep mosquitoes away. People should always use bed nets for more protection.

Ps: Always consult the local doctor, health clinic centres to prevent loss of lives due to malaria.