QUESTION: What are the different strains of malaria? ANSWER: Malaria is caused by small, single-celled parasites called protozoans, and specifically ones of the genus Plasmodium. There are many, many species of Plasmodium, which infect a wide variety of different species, from lizards and birds to rodents, bats and primates. Of all the species of malaria, four main ones infect humans - … [Read more...]
Can malaria kill you?
QUESTION: Can malaria kill you? ANSWER: YES! Malaria, especially of the kind caused by Plasmodium falciparum parasites, can be an extremely severe illness and even deadly. Somewhere between 700,000 and 1 million people die of malaria every year, and the majority of these are children under the age of five years old, which is the age group most susceptible to severe malaria attacks. … [Read more...]
Treating Malaria by Health Extension Workers: A Case Study from Ethiopia
For many years the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have been promoting an Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) training package to ensure that nurses and doctors are capable of treating sick children at health facilities. Over the years, with the realization that many children did not have access to health facilities and therefore … [Read more...]
Wolbachia Bacteria Reduce Parasite Levels and Kill the Mosquitos that Spreads Malaria
Wolbachia are bacteria that infect many insects, including mosquitoes. However, Wolbachia do not naturally infect Anopheles mosquitoes, which are the type that spreads malaria to humans. Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health found that artificial infection with different Wolbachia strains can significantly reduce levels of the human malaria parasite, Plasmodium … [Read more...]
Treatment for Malaria
QUESTION: How do you treat malaria? ANSWER: Malaria can be treated with a number of different types of medication; which one to use depends on the type of malaria you have, as well as whether resistant strains are known to occur in your area. Below I have copied the response I wrote to a similar question on malaria treatment, posted on the 2nd of May, 2011: In most cases of … [Read more...]
Started Late on Anti-malaria Medication
QUESTION: I'm in a malarious country and I had no idea about anti-malarials until I got here, so I started taking anti-malaria(doxycicline) two weeks late. It has been three weeks since I started taking the medicine. Do you think it would work or should I stop taking it? ANSWER: It depends a bit on where you are, and what types of malaria are in your region. Plasmodium falciparum usually … [Read more...]
Treatment for malaria in Africa
QUESTION: What is the treatment for malaria in Africa? ANSWER: The appropriate form of treatment for malaria, regardless of where you are, depends on the type of malaria you have. This can be determined through diagnosis; each of the main malaria parasites that ordinarily infect humans (P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. malariae and P. ovale) looks slightly different under the microscope, … [Read more...]
What is malaria? What Causes Malaria?
QUESTIONS: What is malaria? What causes malaria? ANSWER: I have copied below the text from an earlier question, also asking about the causes of malaria and explaining what it is: 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 … [Read more...]
Malaria symptoms
QUESTION: When a person is ill he or she will have what symptoms? ANSWER: Malaria can have many different symptoms, but the initial signs are similar to a flu-like illness, with high fever, chills, headache and muscle soreness or aches. A characteristic sign of malaria is cyclical fever, with peaks of severity every two or three days. Additionally, some people will experience nausea, … [Read more...]
Malaria Treatment
QUESTION: Is there any treatment for malaria? ANSWER: Yes, treatment is available for malaria and most cases can be cured easily if diagnosed accurately and early. There are several different drugs that are used to treat malaria, and different modes of ingestion. Most cases of malaria can be treated effectively with oral drugs, usually artemisinin-based combination therapies (which … [Read more...]