Multiple Malaria Infections Each Year

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QUESTION

My name is Olumide and I live in Nigeria. I have had malaria too frequently and it’s giving me a lot of concern. I had one last August 2012 and am having another one this October as I am speaking with you. If I should count it, I’ll be having nothing less than 6 occurrences in a year. It’s always an headache induced malaria whereby after using the ACT combination recommended by WHO, two days after, am still having headache, am asthmatic though and can’t use more than Paracetamol. I am tired of all these and need your help.

ANSWER

One of the key things you should check is how you are being diagnosed with malaria—the symptoms of malaria are very general, such as headache, chills and fever. I have seen cases where people assume they have malaria and so take ACTs without getting properly diagnosed, and so they never actually go to the doctor to have their real illness diagnosed. Therefore, next time you feel sick, you should go to the doctor or to a clinic and make sure they do a proper malaria test. This will either be via taking your blood and looking at it on a slide under a microscope, or by using a drop of the blood in a rapid diagnostic test (RDT). I believe that in some parts of Nigeria, you can even buy the RDT in local pharmacies, and do the test yourself at home. Only if you test positive for malaria should you take ACTs; if the test is negative, you should go to a doctor and ask about other possible illnesses with similar symptoms (such as flu, pneumonia, etc).

At the same time, it could be that you are suffering from repeated malaria attacks, in which case you will need to improve your personal protection in order to prevent future attacks. Sleeping under a long-lasting insecticide treated bednet is crucial; you should also wear long-sleeved clothing at night and at the evening since this is when malarial mosquitoes in Africa are usually most active. You may also want to consider indoor residual spraying; this coats the inside walls of your house with insecticide, further reducing the number of mosquitoes that may bite you inside your home. For more information, please see our Malaria Prevention overview page: http://www.malaria.com/overview/malaria-prevention

Anti-Infective Drugs Market to Reach $66 Billion by 2013, Says Report

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The anti-infective drugs market will jump to $66 billion by 2013, according to a recently published report.

Anti-infective drugs include: anti-viral therapeutics, antibiotics, anti-fungal agents and prophylactic treatments such as vaccines. Six infectious diseases — pneumonia, tuberculosis, diarrheal diseases, malaria, measles and HIV/AIDS — account for half of all premature deaths worldwide. With a worldwide death toll from infectious diseases exceeding 14 million, anti-infective drugs are vital.

To date, the most successful anti-infective drugs target the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV, the virus that causes AIDS), the herpes virus (HSV-1 and HSV-2), bacterial infections and hepatitis C (HCV). Truvada, Valtrex, Cravit, Floxin, Atripla, Pegasys, Kaletra and Reyataz are among the anti-infective drugs with the highest global sales.

The report, entitled  “Anti-Infective Drugs Markets,” was produced by TriMark Publications.

The “Anti-Infective Drugs Markets” report covers:

  • Pneumonia
  • Influenza
  • Avian Bird Flu
  • Sinusitis
  • Acute Suppurative Thyroiditis
  • Complicated Skin and Skin Structure Infections (cSSSIs)
  • Lymphadenitis
  • Pharyngotonsillitis
  • Vascular Infections
  • Pancreatitis
  • Urinary Tract Infections (UTIs)
  • Viral Encephalitis
  • Reye’s Syndrome
  • Blood-Borne Infections
  • Malaria
  • West Nile Virus

The “Anti-Infective Drugs Markets” report examines companies manufacturing anti-infective drugs equipment and supplies in the world. Companies covered include: Abraxis Bioscience, Acambis, Achillion, Adlyfe, Advanced Life Sciences Holdings, Affinium, Akonni Biosystems, Alnylam, APP, Aquapharm Biodiscovery, Arbor Vita, Arpida, Avexa, Basilea, Baxter, Biophage Pharma, CEL-SCI, Cerexa, Combimatrix, Cubist, Daiichi Sankyo, Hospira, Idenix, Incyte, Medivir, Meiji Holdings, MerLion, Mutabilis, Nanobio, Nanosphere, Nanoviricides, Novabay, Obetech, Optimer, Panacos, Paratek, Pharmasset, Pico, Polymedix, Powdermed, Presidio, Progenics, Protez, Rib-X, Ribomed, Targanta, Theravance, Trius, Vertex and X-GEN.

Detailed charts with sales forecasts and marketshare data are included.

More information: TriMark Publications.

Source: Business Wire