MALARIA

INTRODUCTION
Malaria is a very common disease in the tropics that people develops when they get bitten by a mosquito, specifically the "female anopheles mosquito". The female anopheles mosquitos transmit the parasite that causes malaria. The name of this parasite is plasmodium. In other words malaria is the disease that is caused by a parasite (plasmodium) which is transmitted by a female anopheles mosquito. For this reason mosquitos are referred to as the carrier (or vector) of the causative agent of malaria and not the cause of malaria.


MALARIA BURDEN

      The UNICEF facts sheet reveals that;
★  Malaria kills one child every 30 seconds
★  Kills about 3000 children every day.
★  Over one million people die from malaria each year, mostly children under five years of age, with 90 per cent of malaria cases occurring in Sub-Saharan Africa.
★  An estimated 300-600 million people suffer from malaria each year.
★  More than 40 percent of the world’s population lives in malaria-risk areas.

      Malaria is particularly damaging to pregnant women and their unborn children.  It can result in maternal anemia(i.e decrease in the ability of our blood to transport oxygen from our lungs to every cells of our body for proper functioning) and low birth weight - the  single greatest risk factor for death during the first months of  life

CAUSATIVE AGENT OF MALARA
      Although doctors calls it Genus, you can consider the name "Plasmodium" as a surname of a family. And the members of this family (which doctors calls species) includes;

Plasmodium falciparum
Plasmodium malariae
Plasmodium ovale
Plasmodium vivax
Plasmodium knowlesi

     Of all these 5 members (species), Plasmodium falciparum is the most notorious and the deadliest.

WHY DO I HAVE MALARIA (SERIES OF EVENTS THAT LEADS TO MALARIA) 
     When these innocent mosquitos comes to bite us, they come with the intention to feed on our blood but in the process, the culprit "Plasmodium" makes its way from the mouth of the mosquitos into our blood stream while the mosquito is feeding on our blood. On entering our blood stream, they are quickly carried by our blood into our liver where they develop into a form that is mature enough to attack our red blood cells (our red blood cell are the cells that helps us transport the inhaled oxygen from our lungs to every cell of our body and transport some carbon (iv)oxide from the cells of our body back to our lungs each time we breathe).
     When these red blood cell are attacked by the matured Plasmodium,  they are broken and their contents are released into our blood stream and this contents are responsible for the fever that we experience. The weakness we feel is related to reduced number of red blood cells that is now available to carry oxygen to the cells of our body for proper functioning (i.e anemia)

MANIFESTATION OF MALARIA
      For the most part, the symptoms of malaria are non specific. However some symptoms have been noticed to exist over time in these age group.

For children under 5 years 
Irritable
Refusal to feed
Excessive cry
Fever
Prostration

In under 18 
Headache
Chills and rigor
Fever
Vomiting
Loss of appetite

In the Adult.
Headache
Body aches
Joint pain

COMPLICATIONS OF MALARIA

 1. BLACK WATER FEVER- black water fever so named because alongside fever, the involved individuals also passes a dark coloured urine. More severe cases of malaria can eventually affect the kidneys making it to failed if not treated.

2. CEREBRAL MALARIA- when the matured Plasmodium released from the liver attacks the red blood cells in the blood stream, the might get carried to the arteries in the brain. Here, these parasitized red blood cells will get stocked within the small arteries of the brain thereby preventing blood from reaching the brain hence the name cerebral malaria. It is potentially dangerous and can lead to death if not treated.

PREVENTION OF MALARIA

Vector control 
Since the Plasmodium cannot crawl into our body system, then the control of what introduce it into our body is KEY and central in the prevention of malaria. Mosquitos survival and reproduction is favoured by having bushes, stagnant dirty water and exposed liquid wastes around. So in combating the vectors, endeavour to clear the bushes around your houses, and ensure a proper liquid waste disposal measures.

A PRO-MALARIA ENVIRONMENT. 

A PRO-MALARIA ENVIRONMENT. 

AN ANTI-MALARIA ENVIRONMENT. 

AN ANTI-MALARIA ENVIRONMENT. 

Ensure that your the windows in your house has a net as this would considerably reduce the mosquitos burden and just in case there are any lingering mosquitos around, there are insecticides that can be sprayed indoor to kill the one that managed to enter the house.

AN INSECTICIDE SPRAY. 

And the very few ones able to evade the insecticide can be taken care of by the use of the long lasting insecticide treated net.

A LONG LASTING INSECTICIDE TREATED NET.

A LONG LASTING INSECTICIDE TREATED NET.

      It is important to know that non of this steps can independently be effective without the others. For example, using only insecticide sprays in a house surrounded by bushes and stagnant waters with a very dirty drainage system will not effectively control the vector (the mosquitos).
     Early diagnosis and treatment is also very important in order to prevent the progression to the deadly complications. To do this, go to the hospital as soon as you feel any of this symptoms where the diagnosis would be established and an appropriate antimalarial would be prescribed. Self medication without an established diagnosis would only promotes resistance to these antimalarial drugs and also expose you to having the side effects of these drugs.
     Also at the hospital, antimalarial prophylaxis are given to some group of people like the pregnant women, a sickle cell disease patient, travellers (immigrants) from a "malaria non endemic" country into a "malaria endemic" country.

CONCLUSION
 Malaria as succinctly explained here is better prevented than treated so more of our efforts and energy should be directed towards preventing it.