Malaria

 

Rain, Rain, go away 

Come again another day........

It’s on everybody’s tongue these days since in an unplanned city it becomes very difficult to deal with continuous raining which presents flooded situation in many areas. Rain makes the weather and emotions pleasant but the situation gets worsened in low lying areas as the water stands there and many pests find such conditions favourable and reproduce very fast. Bacterial diseases become so common. Some parasitic diseases put people at risk. One of the parasitic diseases that’s getting common these days is ‘Malaria’

History of Malaria 

Malaria got its name from an Italian word Mal’aria which means spoiled or bad air. Since it’s an ancient disease hence our ancestors thought that it’s caused because of bad air in the surrounding but they didn’t know it’s caused by a parasite, Plasmodium that is found in an infected female Anopheles mosquito. The credit goes to Laveran who discovered in 1880 that malaria is caused by a parasite called plasmodium.

Life cycle of malarial parasite, Plasmodium 

Stage 1- Infected female Anopheles mosquito bites a healthy person and transmits sporozoites (motile spore) in that person.

Stage 2- With the bloodstream the sporozoites reach the liver where they invade the hepatocytes (liver cells). In addition, they form schizonts which will produce daughter cells. In the liver, the infection is asymptomatic. This stage is termed as pre-erythrocytic stage because after this schizonts will enter the bloodstream again and damage the RBCs.

Stage 3- As soon as schizonts come into the bloodstream they produce merozoites which in turn infect the Red Blood Cells and destroy them. This is the erythrocytic stage where red blood cells are damaged and symptoms of malaria start appearing.

Stage 4- Now gametes are formed and when the female Anopheles mosquito bites the infected person then they are transmitted into it and mate in its gut. In 10 to 18 days they grow and form sporozoites which go into mosquito's salivary gland hence the disease is spread from one person to another when mosquito bites a person.

Symptoms

• Fever 
• Body pain 
• Chills 
• Headache 
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Depression 
• Weakness 
• Tiredness

Diagnosis 

• Related symptoms of malaria 
• Blood test to detect the presence or absence of the parasite

Treatment 

Treatment is done with antimalarial medicines. These are prescription drugs. 

Commonly quinoline compounds are recommended. Few of the medicines include;

• Quinine sulphate 
• Chloroquine phosphate 
• Primaquine phosphate

Precautionary measures to avoid malaria 

• Fix nets in all the windows, doors etc
• Mosquito netting can be done on the bed (works well specially with babies)
• Use mosquito repellent
• Spray insecticides in the vulnerable areas
• Keep the areas clean
• Standing water is the breeding site for mosquitoes hence it must be removed

Take away

Prevention offers benefits specially when they are related to health. If we adopt all the necessary preventive measures, we can stop this disease which could be even fatal in some people under certain conditions. If somebody is infected with the parasite then immediately take that person to the physician who can diagnose and treat it better.

Stay safe and healthy!