Malaria: Treatment and Prevention
Malaria treatment is different for different patients. For severe cases, patients get blood transfusions. Others get various drugs to help get rid of the parasite. Many of these drugs are also used for prevention. Mosquito eradication and nets are also ways of preventing malaria. Unfortunately, there are many difficulties with creating malaria vaccines, so they are currently still under development.
Every 30 seconds, at least one person dies of malaria. About 350-500 million people are infected with malaria each year, and about 1.3-3 million of these result in death. In the next 20 years, the death rate is expected to double (“Malaria,” 2006). Of course, we need to try to prevent this from happening. There are many ways of treating and preventing malaria.
Malaria cases in South Africa, 1971-2003 (“Malaria,” 1996)
Treatment for each malaria patient depends on the specific parasite causing the infection, the severity of the infection, the health condition of the patient, and medication resistance of the parasite. If the parasite has infected more than 5% of blood cells, the patient experiences severe confusion, or lung or complications, exchange blood transfusion is sometimes used to treat the malaria. This procedure is when donor blood is injected while patient blood is being withdrawn. This is the quickest way to remove the parasite from the blood. The drug Chloroquine was used for many years to treat malaria, but the most dangerous type of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, developed resistance to this drug, making it more or less useless. There are at least ten other anti-malarial drugs used to treat malaria today. Extracts of the plant Artemisia annua are very effective, but there is not eno...
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List of References
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Atkinson, William. Epidemiology and Prevention of Vaccine-Preventable Diseases. Washington: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1996.
If this malaria is left untreated, the infected cells can block blood vessels and fatally cut off blood supply to vital organs. This disease kills around 600,000 people each year. Artemisinin is the first line of defence against the malaria and the malaria is becoming immune to this drug. To protect aga...
United States. Department of Health and Human Services. Pink Book "Tetanus" N.p.: n.p., n.d. Http://www.cdc.gov/vaccines/pubs/pinkbook/downloads/tetanus.pdf. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Web.
What Is Polio? What Causes Polio?. (n.d.). Medical News Today. Retrieved October 23, 2013, from http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/
It is caused by parasites of the Plasmodium species(in text reference). These parasites are carried by mosquitoes which become infected after biting someone who has malaria. Malaria is then passed on to others when the infected mosquito bites another person. In rare cases malaria can be passed to another person through blood transfusions, organ donations or shared needles.
United Nations Children’s Fund. (2012). Nutrition - What is the role of nutrition? Retrieved from http://www.unicef.org/nutrition/index_role.html
For several years, I have had an interest in virology and the spread and characteristics of various infectious diseases. Though it makes sense not to possibly induce a state of panic by informing individuals of illnesses that are not native to the area they live in and that they are not likely to contract, I have always liked to remain informed out of my own curiosity and interest. Thus, I have decided to write about malaria.
How Do Vaccines Work? How Do Vaccines Work? Department of Health, Jan. 2011. Web. The Web.
Malaria is a disease that is caused by parasites. It is transferred from one person to another by the infected female Anopheles mosquito. Malaria has been a serious health problem nowadays. WHO has provided the information that approximately 660,000 people died from malaria globally during 2010. Also, after estimating, there are 219 million cases of malaria infection in 2010 worldwide. In sub-Saharan Africa, being one the country that has the high rate of HIV, AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis, had 90% of the people that...
In likeness to Aids, the malaria virus can be in your body for up to
Malaria in humans is caused by four species of protozoa, sophisticated one-celled organisms, that can infect red blood cells. These four species are called Plasmodium falciparum, plasmodium vivax, plasmodium malariae, and plasmodium ovale. The worst cases are caused by the Plasmodium falciparum species, which is also the species with the most resistance to drugs. To contract malaria, a mosquito, but not just any mosquito must bite a human. The only type of mosquito that can infect humans with the malaria virus is the Anopheles mosquito. While there are...
Center for Disease control and Prevention. (2014, July 7). Nutrition. Retrieved from Center for Disease Control and Prevention: http://www.bam.gov/sub_foodnutrition/index.html
Microscopy will be performed on the patient to establish the type of malaria parasite and the number of these parasites in his/her blood sample. The blood sample can be extracted through a finger stab and then made into thick and thin films, and examined severally using a 100x oil immersion objective after staining them with Romanovsky stain (Warrell, Cox, & Firth, 2005, p. 734). By observation, the species of plasmodium can be seen and the number of them established
...at researchers are doing to try to eradicate malaria in underdeveloped countries such as Africa.