Question: In 1985 I contracted Malaria from a blood transfusion during childbirth complications. I gave birth on Thursday on Saturday I started to become ill terrible headache. high fever etc. I stayed at the hospital in with a fever of no lower than 105 for 8 days until a new Indian doctor in our area recognized what it was by my blood panels. I was started on a drug that I cannot recall at … [Read more...]
Search Results for: cerebral malaria
Michigan State University to Develop Mobile App for Malaria Diagnosis
Researchers at the Michigan State University College of Engineering are getting closer to phoning home a rapid-response diagnostic test for malaria. Peter Lillehoj, assistant professor of mechanical engineering, is heading a team of researchers that will use a $1.8 million grant from the National Institutes of Health to develop the technology to diagnose and monitor cerebral malaria using … [Read more...]
Regular Preventive Malaria Treatment Reduces Risk in Children
Protecting young children from malaria in countries where the mosquito-borne illness is endemic can include preventive drug treatment during the rainy season, when most infections occur. Now, researchers report that delivering an anti-malaria drug monthly, all year long, dramatically reduces the risk of this potentially lethal disease in infants and toddlers. Ninety percent of the 219 million … [Read more...]
What Body Systems are Affected by Malaria?
Question: What tissues,organs and/or body systems are affected by malaria? Answer: The malaria parasite is transmitted through blood and has an immediate effect on red blood cells. The most common symptoms of malaria including fever, are caused when the parasites invade red blood cells (erythrocytes) and rupture. However, there are five species of the Plasmodium parasite that cause … [Read more...]
Lasting Effects of Malaria
QUESTION What are the lasting effects of malaria? ANSWER Most people who get malaria and receive the correct treatment in time, usually have no long term affects of malaria infection. However some people who have suffered severe cerebral malaria (from P. falciparum) may experience some longer term neurological effects. There have been reports that up to 25% of young children with … [Read more...]
Pathophysiology of Malaria
QUESTION What is the pathophysiology of malaria? ANSWER Malaria causes disease through a number of pathways, which depend to a certain extent on the species. Malaria is caused by a single-celled parasite of the genus Plasmodium; there are five species which infect humans, being Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, P. malariae and P. knowlesi. All these species are introduced … [Read more...]
Malaria Effects on Brain
QUESTION Does malaria affect your brain? I was 18months when I had it and I almost died. I didn't talk until I was 3 years old and have always had troubles with schooling. Now I'm 23 and for at least 3/4 years I've had problems with my memory and speech. I don't know if its new or I have just been noticing it more since I'm older and I'm still experiencing my learning troubles. So can this … [Read more...]
Can Malaria Penetrate the Brain
QUESTION Can malaria penetrate the brain? ANSWER Approximately 1% of people with malaria will develop a severe form, and in these cases the brain can be affected. When the brain is affected, the condition is called cerebral malaria. Functional changes to the blood-brain barrier occur in cerebral malaria, possibly as a result of the binding of parasitized red blood cells to … [Read more...]
Exchange Transfusion for Treatment of Severe Malaria No Longer Recommended
The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) no longer recommends the use of exchange transfusion (ET) as an adjunct to antimalarial drugs for the treatment of severe malaria. ET is a procedure in which a portion of blood from the infected patient is removed and replaced with uninfected blood. Previously, the rationale for the use of ET in severe malaria was that ET removed infected cells … [Read more...]
How Malaria Parasites Stick to Sides of Blood Vessels
Researchers have identified how malaria parasites growing inside red blood cells stick to the sides of blood vessels in severe cases of malaria. The discovery may advance the development of vaccines or drugs to combat severe malaria by stopping the parasites attaching to blood vessels. The results are now published in the scientific journal Nature. Though researchers have known for over a … [Read more...]