Question: Is Malaria a contact disease between individuals? Answer: The short answer is no. Malaria cannot be transmitted from person to person; it is transmitted via the bite of infected mosquitoes. The only exceptions are between a mother and her unborn child (the malaria parasite can pass across the placenta during pregnancy, causing a condition known as "congenital malaria" in the baby) and … [Read more...]
How to Prevent Malaria in High Risk Groups and Areas
Question: Malaria prevention in high risk group & area? Answer: There are many effective ways to protect yourself against malaria, even in high risk areas. A full list of measures can be found in the "Malaria Overview" section of the website, which has a specific page dedicated to malaria prevention. A direct link to the prevention page can be found here: Malaria Prevention. … [Read more...]
Why is it Difficult to Make a Malaria Vaccine?
Question: Explain why it has been proven difficult to develop a vaccine for malaria? Answer: There are a number of reasons why it has been difficult to develop a commercially practical and widely available vaccine against malaria. Most vaccines work by priming the immune system to identify and attack the disease when it enters the body. This is usually achieved by killing or weakening the … [Read more...]
Parasite Counting Formula
Question: Please send me malaria parasite counting formula Answer: Malaria parasites are usually counted against white blood cells using a thick blood smear under a microscope. The person reading the slide should use two tally counters, one for malaria and one for the white blood cells. (Note - Some tally counters can take multiple tallies at the same time, which means only one tally counter … [Read more...]
Malaria and Dengue Fever Persistence
Question: Up to the age of 20 I lived in Malaysia Singapore and North Borneo - born 1953. Is is possible that during that time I contracted either malaria or dengue and because it was never treated it is still in my system. Answer: While there is some evidence of long term clinical symptoms associated with dengue infection, I have not heard of a case that would have persisted across multiple … [Read more...]
Neurolgoical Effects of Malaria
Question: My dad (73 years) grew up in Africa while his dad worked as an engineer. He got malaria really bad as a young child and my Nana said her once bright child who knew several languages seemed to never be the same after his malaria. I'm guessing he had a bit of brain damage from it. He's always been a bit odd and quirky. Never quite getting the whole picture on things. Slow to learn. Poor … [Read more...]
Taking Malaria Tablets Chloroquine Phosphate
Question: I would like to know if it is possible that taking chloroquine phosphate for 3 days before blood smear is taken for detection of malaria parasites may give a malaria negative result? Answer: Absolutely. Chloroquine phosphate is an anti-malarial medication. While it is not effective for all types of malaria, when faced with a susceptible strain, chloroquine phosphate will have the … [Read more...]
Malaria Relapse
Question: I’ve been on a holiday to West Africa where I was infected with Malaria. After a treatment in the hospital of Abidjan (Ivory Coast) I recovered and had a flight back to the Netherlands (my home country). It is now nine months later, and to me it looks like I’ve the same symptoms again. Slowly (for almost 3 weeks now) the symptoms are getting back, I’ve the same muscle pain, temperature … [Read more...]
What Causes Stomach Ache with Malaria?
Question: What is responsible for stomach ache in malaria condition? Answer: Often, stomach ache in malaria occurs in the early stages of malaria infection (first week or so) and can be caused by the rapid enlargement of the liver and spleen as they become inflamed. During malaria infection, and particularly that with Plasmodium falciparum, the most deadly and severe form of malaria, large … [Read more...]
Can Malaria Return? Can Malaria Cause Death?
Question: Did malaria come back for sure even after medical treatment? Can malaria cause death? Answer: To answer your first question, there are some cases in which malaria can come back. First of all, you can become re-infected - treatment for malaria does not prevent re-infection, so if you have had it once, while your body may now have some natural immunity, you can still definitely be … [Read more...]