Say no to Malaria, Say it to all

Malaria is a disease that is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium. This year, WHO’s theme for World Malaria Day is ‘End Malaria for Good’, an initiative to lessen the number of malaria cases.

Symptoms:

There are several symptoms that can aware you of malaria contamination. However, it is best to get a blood test done to make sure it is in fact malaria and not something else. Sometimes, it takes time for the parasite to show up in the blood test and so a repeat blood test is done after 12 hours to check if the parasite is truly present. Here are the common symptoms associated with malaria.

Patient is likely to suffer from:

Fever, Shivering, Sweating, Chills, Fatigue, Headache, Nausea

Treatment:

Malaria can be a severe and potentially fatal disease; the treatment should be initiated as soon as possible. Patients who have severe P. falciparum malaria or who cannot take oral medications should be given the treatment by continuous intravenous infusion. In addition, primaquine is active against the dormant parasite liver forms (hypnozoites) and prevents relapses. Primaquine should not be taken by pregnant women or by people who are deficient in G6PD (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase). Patients should not take Primaquine until a screening test has excluded G6PD deficiency.