Why is malaria dangerous?

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QUESTION

Why is malaria dangerous?

ANSWER

Malaria is dangerous because if left untreated, it can be deadly. This is particularly true of Plasmodium falciparum, which can rapidly escalate into severe disease with cerebral (brain) complications.

However, other forms of malaria, such as P. vivax and P. knowlesi, can also be fatal if untreated. The people most at risk from severe malaria are pregnant women and young children; in addition pregnant women who contract malaria are at risk of passing the disease to their foetus either during pregnancy or during birth (so-called congenital malaria) which can have negative effects on the baby, such as poor growth and low birth weight.

Malaria Parasite Seminar

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QUESTION

i am lab technician, and I am requesting a seminar of malaria parasite. Thanks.

ANSWER

Thank you for your question. Perhaps if you could provide us with a bit more detail as to what you would like to see in a seminar, and we can try to create a seminar-like presentation that we can make available on our website. Alternatively, if you let us know where you are based (city, country) we may be able to put you in touch with malaria researchers or practitioners near where you live who can point you in the direction of local seminars, or can help organise one.

How is Malaria Spread?

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QUESTION

How is malaria spread?

ANSWER

Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted via the bites of infected mosquitoes. In the human body, the parasites multiply in the liver, and then infect red blood cells. Usually, people get malaria by being bitten by an infective female Anopheles mosquito. Only Anopheles mosquitoes can transmit malaria and they must have been infected through a previous blood meal taken on an infected person. When a mosquito bites an infected person, a small amount of blood is taken in which contains microscopic malaria parasites. About 1 week later, when the mosquito takes its next blood meal, these parasites mix with the mosquito’s saliva and are injected into the person being bitten.

Because the malaria parasite is found in red blood cells of an infected person, malaria can also be transmitted through blood transfusion, organ transplant, or the shared use of needles or syringes contaminated with blood. Malaria may also be transmitted from a mother to her unborn infant before or during delivery (“congenital” malaria).


What are the Symptoms of Malaria?

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QUESTION

What are malaria symptoms?

ANSWER

Symptoms of malaria include fever and flu-like illness, including shaking chills, headache, muscle aches, and tiredness. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may also occur. Malaria may cause anemia and jaundice (yellow coloring of the skin and eyes) because of the loss of red blood cells.

Symptoms usually appear between 10 and 15 days after the mosquito bite. If not treated, malaria can quickly become life-threatening by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs. Infection with one type of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, if not promptly treated, may cause kidney failure, seizures, mental confusion, coma, and death. In many parts of the world, the parasites have developed resistance to a number of malaria medicines.

For most people, symptoms begin 10 days to 4 weeks after infection, although a person may feel ill as early as 7 days or as late as 1 year later. Two kinds of malaria, P. vivax and P. ovale, can occur again (relapsing malaria). In P. vivax and P. ovale infections, some parasites can remain dormant in the liver for several months up to about 4 years after a person is bitten by an infected mosquito. When these parasites come out of hibernation and begin invading red blood cells (“relapse”), the person will become sick.

Infection with malaria parasites may result in a wide variety of symptoms, ranging from absent or very mild symptoms to severe disease and even death. Malaria disease can be categorized as uncomplicated or severe (complicated) . In general, malaria is a curable disease if diagnosed and treated promptly and correctly.

Malaria in Africa

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QUESTION

Why do Africans catch malaria more than others?

ANSWER

There are a number of reasons why malaria is more widespread in Africa than in many other parts of the world. However, it is worth mentioning that other parts of the world, such as India and south-east Asia, also have very high prevalence of malaria, especially in rural areas.

The high transmission of malaria is Africa is predominantly due to two factors: climate and control measures, or rather, the lack of them.

Malaria is spread by mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles, and so in order to persist, an area must have a suitable temperature for the development of both the mosquito as well as the malaria parasite. This limits malaria transmission to the sub-tropics and tropics, primarily. The area must also have sufficient rainfall and areas of standing water, since the malaria mosquitoes lay their eggs in stagnant water, which the larvae live in until they pupate into adults. This means that malaria transmission cannot occur in desert regions.

Unfortunately, a large portion of Africa, and particularly West, Central and East Africa, are climatically very well suited to the development of mosquitoes and thus the transmission of malaria.

In addition, many countries in Africa are not as developed as other tropical countries. This means that health resources have not been as focused on control efforts in Africa—for example, Malaysia very successfully reduced malaria transmission by a huge amount through a combination of vector control (namely spraying households with insecticides and filling up stagnant water pools so larvae couldn’t develop), distribution of bednets (which reduces mosquito biting rate) and better diagnoses and treatment facilities.

All of these efforts are beginning to be developed and rolled out in Africa as well, so hopefully in the near future we will also see a dramatic reduction in malaria transmission in Africa.

Causes of Malaria

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QUESTION

What are the causes of malaria?

ANSWER

Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted via the bites of infected mosquitoes. In the human body, the parasites multiply in the liver, and then infect red blood cells. Usually, people get malaria by being bitten by an infective female Anopheles mosquito.

Only Anopheles mosquitoes can transmit malaria and they must have been infected through a previous blood meal taken on an infected person. When a mosquito bites an infected person, a small amount of blood is taken in which contains microscopic malaria parasites. About 1 week later, when the mosquito takes its next blood meal, these parasites mix with the mosquito’s saliva and are injected into the person being bitten.

Following the infective bite by the Anopheles mosquito, a period of time (the “incubation period”) goes by before the first symptoms appear. The incubation period in most cases varies from 7 to 30 days. The shorter periods are observed most frequently with P. falciparum and the longer ones with P. malariae.

Because the malaria parasite is found in red blood cells of an infected person, malaria can also be transmitted through blood transfusion, organ transplant, or the shared use of needles or syringes contaminated with blood. Malaria may also be transmitted from a mother to her unborn infant before or during delivery (“congenital” malaria).


Quinine Side Effects

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QUESTION

What are the side effects of quinine?

ANSWER

The main side effect of quinine, in therapeutic doses, is cinchonism or quinism. This is a condition associated with a number of symptoms, including flushed/sweaty skin, tinnitus, confusion, headaches, and more.

Mild cinchonism should not be a reason to cease treatment with quinine, however. If injected into a nerve, quinine can cause paralysis, and is an extremely potent poison if overdosed. In some cases, quinine can lead to constipation, erectile dysfunction and/or diarrhea. There are few side effects associated with oral quinine.

If you have taken medications for malaria, please help Malaria.com by taking our Malaria Medication Side-effects Survey: Treatment and Prophylaxis. Thank you!

Malaria Cure

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QUESTION

What is the cure for malaria?

ANSWER

Malaria can be cured with a number of different medications, depending on then type of malaria and how far the disease has been progressed.

For standard, non-complicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria, the World Health Organisation recommends use of artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), such as Coartem. This is due to increasing levels of resistance to chloroquine in many parts of the world. Indeed, even though chloroquine is still used in many places as first-line treatment against P. vivax, P. malariae, P. ovale and P. knowlesi uncomplicated malaria, there is some evidence that resistance to this treatment is also emerging, for example in P. vivax in parts of south-east Asia.

In cases where malaria infection has progressed to a stage where oral administration of medication is not possible, or where cerebral symptoms are suspected, the usual treatment option is intravenous quinine.

In addition, P. vivax and P. ovale malaria parasites are able to produce forms (called hypnozoites) which can become dormant in liver hepatocyte cells after the blood stages of the infection have been cleared. These dormant forms can become reactivated weeks or even months or years after the initial infection, which is called a “relapse” of the infection. One drug, called primaquine, is able to kill these liver stages, and so patients with either of these types of malaria should also discuss the possibility of taking primaquine.

Apart from these first-line treatments, there are other medications which are used against malaria, both prophylactically as well as for treatment. These include orally-administered quinine, pyrimethamine, mefloquine, proguanil, atovaquone and sulfonamides.

For more information, see the WHO recommendations for malaria treatment.


What are Gametocytes?

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QUESTION

What are Gametocytes?

ANSWER

Gametocytes are the sexually reproductive form of the malaria parasite. They circulate in the blood of the human/mammal host and are picked up by the mosquito when it takes a blood meal.

Inside the mosquito, the gametocytes undergo sexual reproduction in the mosquito midgut, producing oocysts which attach to the midgut wall and produce sporozoites, which are the stage that are infective to humans when the mosquito takes another blood meal (the sporozoites are passed into the blood via the saliva of the mosquito).

What do people look like when they have malaria?

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QUESTION

What do people look like when they have malaria?

ANSWER

They look sick! When a person has malaria, they experience a flu-like illness, characterised by cycles of fevers and chills, and often accompanied by headaches and nausea. In addition, they may have jaundice (a yellowing of the skin and eyes) due to loss of red blood cells.