QUESTION: What are the symptoms? ANSWER: Symptoms of malaria include fever and flu-like illness, including shaking chills, headache, muscle aches, and tiredness. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may also occur. Malaria may cause anemia and jaundice (yellow coloring of the skin and eyes) because of the loss of red blood cells. Symptoms usually appear between 10 and 15 days after the mosquito … [Read more...]
Can malaria cause kidney failure?
QUESTION: Can malaria be a cause for kidney failure or brain fever? ANSWER: Malaria, and specifically Plasmodium falciparum malaria, the most severe and deadly form of the disease, can certainly cause both renal failure and brain fever. It usually does this by infecting red blood cells, which then become blocked in tiny blood vessels deep within organs. This process is called … [Read more...]
What pathogenic organisms cause malaria?
QUESTION: What pathogenic organism causes the disease? ANSWER: Malaria is caused by single-celled organisms, called protozoans, of the genus Plasmodium. Different forms of malaria are caused by different species of Plasmodium. The most severe and deadly form is caused by P. falciparum, which is responsible for 90% of the global deaths from malaria, the majority of these in Africa, and … [Read more...]
Malaria and Jaundice
QUESTION: Why are patients suffering with malaria more susceptible to jaundice? ANSWER: The icterus/jaundice is usually from lysis/breakdown of infected red blood cells as they rupture and release new malaria parasites into the bloodstream. If only 1% of red cells are infected, this will be mild. If "parasitaemia" is severe/life threatening, say, 10% of red cells infected, then the … [Read more...]
Can malaria affect the liver and stomach?
QUESTION: Can malaria affect the liver and stomach? I had two attacks of P. falciparum few years back. Now I doubt there is some swelling under my right rib bone. Please clear my doubt. ANSWER: Malaria can certainly affect many of the organs in the body, including the stomach and liver. This is due to the sequestration (attachment) of red blood cells to the tiny blood vessels in these … [Read more...]
Malaria and Loss of Red Blood Cells
QUESTION: What is the percentage of red blood cell that is lost at the onset of malaria symptoms? ANSWER: This depends entirely on the severity of the malaria infection, and also the type of malaria. Malaria parasites, called Plasmodium, invade red blood cells and use them for rapid, asexual reproduction. After a certain number of multiplications, the parasites burst out from the red … [Read more...]
White Blood Cells and Malaria
QUESTION Does malaria cause loss of white blood cells / antibodies? ANSWER The parasites that cause malaria reproduce in the human host by infecting red blood cells, then multiplying asexually and bursting out into the bloodstream, ready to infect more red blood cells. As such, malaria parasites do not destroy white blood cells. However, patients with malaria may display reduced white … [Read more...]
Having Malaria after being tested negative
QUESTION: In April 2010 I was in India, had symptoms of malaria, had blood work done, platelets low but rapid antigen and smear were negative. One year later, May 2011, had low platelet count, chills, no fever or fever spikes. Could this be malaria again even though I was tested negative. ANSWER: This response is courtesy of Dr Jaya Swarup Mohanty, a physician in India: Malaria doesn't … [Read more...]
Causes of Malaria
QUESTION: What causes malaria? ANSWER: Malaria is a disease caused by a parasitic single-celled animal known as Plasmodium. There are different species of Plasmodium, which cause different kinds of malaria. The main types which infect humans are P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale and P. malariae. The parasite is transmitted by certain species of mosquito; the parasite lives in the human … [Read more...]