Health Term IV : Summary to Malaria

Yiiihaaaawww.. Back again to today post. I would like to write about Malaria disease which is nightmare for most tropical countries in the world. Estimated 290 millions people yearly got this disease around the globe. This disease causes high fever and can be sometimes cause complications to kidney, heart, brain, blood and can lead often to death. In here we have to aware that even small animal can be carrier for disease that perhaps we need to pay attention, do we already do good to nature? In fact, the prevention for this type of disease is not hard compare to Dengue, it needs regular basis treatment to surrounds and be active to keep the nature clean which meaning give the space enough to the mosquitoes to live in their own habitat so they are also will reduce to invade human-beings.




What is Malaria ? and Who can Cause Malaria?


Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite and spread by the the bite of Anopheles mosquito ( as a carrier - red ).


That causes Malaria is the single-celled animals called plasmodium. There are four (4) species that can bring Malaria to humans :

• Plasmodium falciparum
• Plasmodium vivax
• Plasmodium ovale
• Plasmodium malarie

Each type of  those parasite spends most of their life cycle inside of Anopheles mosquito then again spends their rest of life cycle inside the human's body.

Symptoms and Incubation

The symptoms of malaria are shaking, chills, fever ( only appears when the red-blood cells burst and have more parasites inside the blood ).

The distance range time between the mosquito's bite and the appearance of malaria's symptoms, approximately one or two weeks, somehow there are also emerging symptoms after a year later when the patient ever took anti-malaria's drugs.

Fever Symptoms in Malaria which caused by Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malarie

The fever which caused by these three types of parasites have three ( 3 ) stages :

• Stage of feeling cold and chills throughout the body
• Stage of high fever that can reach 41 degrees of body temperature
• Stage of sweating drenched body as like bathing and pyretic.

Occasionally, red-blood cells which parasites have been conceded can be broken at the same hour on each cycle and the fever will appear every two days ( if caused by plasmodium vivax and plasmodium ovale ) and fever can be happen every three days ( if caused by plasmodium malarie ).

Other feelings when malaria comes :

• Bad headache
• Body aching
• Vomiting sometimes can be happen
• The end the patient would feel so weak and fall asleep for moments

The Signature Mark of  Plasmodium Falciparum

Malaria which caused by plasmodium falciparum should be solved seriously than the three mentioned above. Patient has to be hospitalized. 

Plasmodium falciparum invade all red-blood cells in whole its life cycle. Others plasmodium only eat the young -aged or old-aged of red-blood cells. Meaning that plasmodium falciparum is highly malignant by eating and destroying almost whole the red-blood cells and can lead to the death after few hours from its first fever symptom. The fever would take longer and no pattern. So much red-blood are damaged that can cause blockage of the arteries which has role-key play as the supplier food nutrients to important body organs, specially to kidney. 

Nodes can swell and affect the brain so that the patient experienced comma and seizures. The destruction of red-cell blood would bring hemolytic anemia. Patient eventually develops liver and kidney failures.

Medication

Doctor would usually provide a function of chloroquin to deadly the malaria parasite in the blood ( usually would be given to the 3 types of plasmodium ovale, vivax and malarie. For the plasmodium falciparium already resist to this chloroquin ).

Once the doctor detects that caused by plasmodium falciparum ( the detection will be doing by the blood test where later will show the amount of parasites already reduce or not yet ), the doctor would give quinine or the drugs which mixed of  pyrimethamine and sulfadoxine. If the patient lack of red-blood cells, the blood transfusion is needed to be taken. 

After healed, the patient who ever suffered from common three types of  plasmodium, usually the doctor would give primaquine to cleaning up the rests of parasites which still stay inside the blood. 

Note:  primaquine can cause anemia hemolytic to some poeple who has particular gene abnormality. 

The Doctors' Special Note ( once I interviewed them with this today's term )

The prevention of malaria is not hard to do once we do eager to eradicate malaria plasmodium parasite through anopheles mosquito by cutting their life cycles. The easiest way to do are just cleaning up the areas which are possible for mosquito to live ( puddle, water containers etc ). Once it clean the mosquito have no parasite to live in them too. 

Happy Day !! Tomorrow is our Indonesian Independence Day !!! MERDEKA !!! ( merdeka = Freedom )