How quickly should patient take medicine for malaria?

QUESTION:

My sister has been suffering from malaria for three months. She consulted with doctor in the first symptom of malaria but doctor gave only fever medicine at that time. Blood test was not done at that time. So my question is: “within how many days or months malaria patient has to immediately take medicine?”

ANSWER:

One of our collaborating medical doctors has assisting in providing this answer:

It depends on the type of malaria….with Plasmodium vivax infection she could have a low burden due to concurrent treatment or recent prophylaxis which is breaking through because of low grade resistance. Alternatively, it could be P. malariae or P. ovale, both of which sometimes cause only mild disease that may or may not progress.  P. falciparum shouldn’t act this way; it is usually a much more severe, aggressive infection. Another option is that she might not have malaria at all.  She needs qualitative and quantitative smears to confirm the diagnosis, together with a comprehensive travel/exposure history to support any clinical suspicions.