Updated: 02-06-2025
Want to Eradicate Malaria? Know Facts About Malaria
Are you suffering from malaria? Then it’s better to know facts about malaria so that one can undergo treatment and take necessary precautions.
Through an overview study and research, it will be easier for a person to know about the sources of spread of malaria and the latest treatment procedures to tackle this mosquito-borne disease.
WHO and other healthcare institutes, including NGOs, participate in the malaria management and rehabilitation campaigns to educate general people about the devastating impact of malaria on patients.
What Is Malaria?
Malaria is an infectious disease that is borne by Anopheles mosquitoes.
Patients who are infected with malaria germs should be hospitalised for immediate medical care.
People need to know basic facts about malaria, such as its causes, symptoms, and good treatment to remove the germ of malaria germ.
However, simultaneously, some preventive measures should be adopted to protect patients suffering from malaria.
At the same time, people will have to implement some health management and environmental cleansing programs, which must be launched to eliminate malaria and other infections, to ensure the safety of the next generation.
Anopheles is a female and the only mosquito known to transmit malaria.
She has her own timing for biting and prefers to bite mostly between 9 pm to 5 am, mostly when people are sleeping.
This makes mosquito prevention during sleep very important.
More than 100 malaria parasite species are known to mankind.
However, the deadliest and the commonest are found in Africa and are known as Plasmodium falciparum.
Malaria in India
The Indian statistics show that adults are the major sufferers of malaria infection in the country.
According to the WHO, every year, more than 15,000 people die due to malaria in India alone.
However, these are the only documented figures picked from hospitals.
There is a possibility that the real figure is much bigger than this.
Except for the hilly states such as Jammu & Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, which are placed much higher at above 5000 feet, all the states in India are prone to this disease.
Some of the high-focus states include Maharashtra, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Jharkhand, Karnataka, and Gujarat.
Knowing the facts about malaria helps individuals combat the disease.
Facts about Malaria
The following are the facts about malaria that every individual should know to prevent its occurrence or to combat it.
Causes of malaria
- The carrier of the malaria disease is a mosquito.
- This insect bites people.
- Parasites stored in the body of a mosquito are transported to the bloodstream of a human being via mandibles/maxillae during blood sucking.
- Malaria germs or parasites travel to the liver of a patient and start building up rapidly to infect the body of the patient.
- It multiplies 10,000 times within a few days and two weeks.
Symptoms of Malaria
Symptoms of malaria resemble some of the well-known diseases like gastroenteritis and common viral infections that deteriorate the health of patients.
- Basic symptoms of malaria are fever, muscle cramps, vomiting, weakness, damage to the retina, and episodes of recurrent convulsions to reduce the strength and firmness of the body.
- After the first bite of a mosquito, symptoms are exhibited within 25 days.
- In some cases, due to pre-shot administration and medical care, symptoms are visible after a month.
- Family members will have to track patients and prepare reports to inform the doctor about the condition of the patient.
- On the other hand, paroxysm is the critical state in which malaria-affected patients experience coldness followed by body trembling/shivering.
- A temperature of the body temperature goes down and then comes back to attack the patient after a short gap.
- Experts admit that malaria also creates some neurological disorders, which include nystagmus and seizures.
Diagnostic Procedures to Detect Malaria
In the remote and unidentified areas, clinical tests and diagnostic procedures are not easy to conduct to trace the parasites of malaria in the bodies of victims.
This is truer in the case of developing countries like India.
Therefore, experts need to cross-examine patients to know about recent travel experiences, short stays in new places, unknown environments, and other factors relating to malaria.
- Lab tests are carried out to test the antigen levels in the blood.
- Rapid Diagnostic Test, or RDT, is the latest malaria diagnostic tool that enables experts to determine the presence of malaria parasites in the bloodstream.
- Doctors check the fluctuation rate of bilirubin in the blood.
- A lower number of blood platelets is also a symptom of the onset of malaria.
- Doctors go for spleen and liver scanning scientifically to track the antigen buildups.
However, in rural areas, people are not lucky to have high-tech RDT and blood film tests due to the absence of experienced researchers.
In the non-endemic backcountry, people have to travel to reach the city for advanced malaria diagnosis.
Therefore, people living in such underdeveloped areas must be in touch with experts to know the facts about malaria.
Many health experts think that blood film microscopy is not sufficient for detecting this dangerous disease and insist on RDT and good clinical observation to identify parasites of malaria.
Prevention and Precautions to Resist Malaria
- Firstly, you need to know that there is no vaccination, which is prescribed for protecting people from malaria. Therefore, timely prevention and precautions will give you better safeguards.
- To reduce the adverse impact of malaria, people should be proactive in cleaning the environment.
- Local folks must know the causes of this infection. It is important to destroy Anopheles mosquitoes to resist malaria germs from invading.
- Mosquitoes spread larvae in the pond, boggy lands, and debris.
- Houses, which are overloaded with garbage and waste products, become favourable dens for mosquitoes to live peacefully.
- The malaria control plans must include regular home cleaning, garbage removal, and environmental detoxification.
- Drains, water sumps, and old reservoirs give shelter to mosquitoes.
- You should spray insecticide to detoxify the contaminated water.
- Do not let the water containers and reservoirs lie open without coverage.
- In this regard, the use of local municipalities and health organisations can’t be overlooked.
- They should be prompt to launch campaigns to train women and rural folks about ways to prevent malaria.
- Use mosquito nets to have immediate support for retaliation.
- Mosquitoes are not able to smash the strong nylon nets to bite sleeping people.
- They have also been driven away by spraying some powerful mosquito repellent solutions.
- However, people must buy qualitative mosquito repellent products from the market.
- Schools, colleges, and other social institutions should open training classes to guide children and illiterate people.
- This basic training must be provided to children to avoid malaria.
- Indoor preventive therapy and good education are a must to control malaria and prevent casualties.
Instead of spending a lot of money to buy medications to get recovery from malaria, preventive procedures are more useful to people.
Many health management plans have been designed so far for the eradication of this widespread disease.
Malaria is curable if patients are given faster medical advice in advance.
However, there will be a severe loss if patients are neglected. Malaria can snatch your valuable life.
Therefore, you must be cautious to have timely safeguards and preventive care to check the spread of this disease in your vicinity, and it is better to be aware of facts about malaria.
Treatment for Malaria
Malaria preventive medications are given to patients after the clinical tests and final diagnosis.
Doctors check the condition of patients and then prescribe anti-malarial medications and shots to help patients survive.
Even though the chloroquine drug is preferred to control sensitive parasites of malaria, in severe cases, artesunate medications are offered to patients who have suffered from pain.
Fever must be managed immediately for rapid recuperation.
If patients are weak, doctors give them some powerful anti-malarial drugs, such as the dihydroartemisinin type medication, which is a powerful drug used to treat patients with less complicated malaria.
This drug needs to be taken regularly to complete the course.
An overdose of such medication can be dangerous and fatal to patients.
Diet for Malaria Patients
- During the long-lasting spell of malaria, patients lose the appetite to eat hard food.
- They should be given light food.
- During treatment in the hospital, malaria-affected patients are given sterilised mineral water, boiled papaya, and fresh fruits.
- Doctors for patients to survive from fatigue also prescribe multivitamin supplements.
- Fat-based food should be avoided, as patients vomit frequently when they are attacked by malaria.
- Cinnamon and lemon juice reduce the discomfort of patients who suffer from deep nausea.
- Patients must not take soft drinks when they feel thirsty during a convulsion.
If you are aware of facts about malaria, by following a proper diet plan, one can overcome it easily.
Special Considerations
You can acquire some amount of immunity towards malarial infection if you are native to the area with high malaria cases.
Although the protection is not complete, and you are still at risk of acquiring this infection, the chances are reduced.
Moreover, even if you do suffer from this infection, the severity will be considerably lower.
However, in case you leave the area, you will immediately lose your immunity.
Pregnancy makes you vulnerable to malaria infection.
Hence, you should avoid travelling to an area that is more prone to malaria infection, especially if you belong to a region where the cases of malaria are very low.
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