Malaria
Malaria
Malaria is a disease that is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium falciparum . These parasite enters the human body through mosquito bite. These parasites multiply easily with in the liver and affect the red blood cells. Symptoms of malaria usually appears with in seven to twenty one days of mosquito bite. In some rare cases the parasite remains dormant in liver for months.
Causes of Malaria
Malaria is usually transmitted through Anopheles mosquitoes. The parasite causing malaria includes Palsmodium falciparum and besides this species Palsmodium vivax, Palsmodium malariae and Palsmodium ovale may also cause malaria. These mosquitoes on sucking blood from an infected person gets the parasites from their blood. When this mosquito bite another person the parasite get transmitted to that person along with the mosquito’s saliva. These parasites then moves along with the blood flow and reach the liver where they develop in to a matured parasite and multiply. This matured parasite then infects the red blood cells of that person and produce malarial symptoms.
In rare cases malaria may occur due to blood transfusion, shared needles, organ transplantation etc. Malaria may also get transmitted to a fetus through the infected mother.
Symptoms of Malaria
The most common symptom of malaria is high fever, muscle ache, chills, headache etc. Certain people develop diarrhea, vomiting, nausea, respiratory problems, perspiration, weakness and cough. There may be a cycle of fever, chill and sweating that may repeat in every 2 or 3 days. As the red blood cells and liver cells are getting destructed there may be yellowing on the eye’s white and skin. In severe cases there may be kidney failure, liver failure, liver enlargement etc associated with shocks.
In certain cases there may be excessive acidity in body fluids and blood. Hypoglycemia is also seen in certain cases. Sometimes it may also affect the central nervous system and cause mental confusions, seizures and at times the patient may enter in to a coma stage. It may leads to the death of the affected person. If you are pregnant then malaria may leads to abortion, premature delivery and even still birth.
In order to prevent the occurrence of malaria avoid your exposure to mosquito bite and always use mosquito repellents while going out in the evening and morning hours.
