Mr. Malaria_by_Monikka,Akerind

Malaria_Prevention and Control

2009-06-22T06:04:00.000-07:00

Prevention and Control for individuals:

· Preventive medicine (prophylactic drugs), anti-malarial drugs:

- Chloroquine, taken weekly

- Proguanil (paludrine), taken daily

- Mefloquine, taken weekly – start two to three weeks before travelling to the infected area, may have side effects; mood changes, paranoia

- Doxycycline, taken daily – start two to three days before travelling and four weeks after leaving the malaria-infected area

- Maralone, taken daily with meals rich in fats – cannot be taken more than 28 days.

· Avoid mosquito bites by:

- using mosquito repellent cream,

- using mosquito nets and bed cloths,

- using screened,

- wear protective clothing.

· Spray rooms with insecticides,

· Discard water left unattended as it is known to attract mosquitoes, especially considering they breed in water,

· Vaccination – under development,

If symptoms of malaria develop (such as fever), seek medical help urgently.

Prevention and Control for communities:

· Vector control; eliminating the mosquitoes, sterile insect technique (make them infertile),

· Protecting human directly,

· Standing water and swamps are drained,

· Ship, planes, and vehicles should be sprayed before arrival in malarial free location.

Malaria_Treatment

2009-06-22T06:00:00.000-07:00

The most common treatment is the use of anti-malarial drugs. These include chloroquine, primaquinine, mefloquine or quinine. These drugs can either reduce temperature or cure the infection. Unfortunately, drug-resistant strains of the pathogen, plasmodium has mutated.

Prevention and control can involve the protection of people directly or the destruction of the mosquito vectors. The aims of the two are to keep incidences of the disease at a minimum within the population.

medicines
Chris Pearson.

Malaria_Major symptoms

2009-06-22T05:57:00.000-07:00

· High fever caused by toxins released within the red blood cells.

· Profuse sweating

· Nausea

· Shivering fits

· Headaches

· Vomiting

· Diarrhoea

· Anaemia (lethargy/ lack of energy) due to a loss in red blood cells and haemoglobin.

Malaria_Host response

2009-06-22T05:53:00.000-07:00

When plasmodium is detected within the red blood cells, the host begin to produce antibodies. Unfortunately, the surface antigen of the plasmodium cell membrane changes periodically, making it unrecognisable to the antibodies. However, whilst the plasmodium is within the liver, it is isolated from the immune system of the host.

Malaria_Transmission

2009-06-22T05:48:00.000-07:00

These parasites are transmitted by the female mosquito, which acts as a vector.

The mosquitoes that transmit human malaria belong to a group called Anopheles. These mosquitoes contract the disease by taking blood from an infected host. They then pass on the disease when they feed on another uninfected host, whom then contracts the disease through the saliva of the mosquito, injected during feeding and containing plasmodium.

Anopheles Mosquito

B. S. Kakkilaya 2006-2008
malariasite.com 2006-2008

Malaria_Cycle of disease

2009-06-22T05:46:00.001-07:00

http://www.emro.who.int/rbm/Images/MalariaLifeCycle-1.gif

As the mosquitoes feed on human blood, it also injects saliva containing an anti coagulant, which prevents the blood from clotting in its proboscis (feeding tube). If this saliva contains plasmodium sporozoites, the human host becomes infected. These sporozoites (haploid parasite formed in the mosquito) then invade the human liver cells and begin to asexually reproduce. After a period of two – four weeks, the merozoites (daughter cell) from the parasites burst with toxin and begin to invade red blood cells of the human. The merozoites then developed into gametocytes, which are then sucked up by another female anopheles mosquito. Within this new mosquito, the gametocytes (sexual stage of the malarial parasite) develop into gametes, which become fertile and developed into zygotes (fertilised egg cell). Meiosis then occurs forming sporozoites, which migrate to the salivary gland and can then be injected into a human host along with the saliva.

Malaria_Pathogens

2009-06-22T05:43:00.001-07:00

There are four different parasites known to cause human malaria. These include Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium malariae and Plasmodium ovale.

Plasmodium falciparum

Malaria_Historical development, of the understanding of the cause of the disease

2009-06-22T05:26:00.000-07:00

For over 50,000 years, Malaria has infected human. Symptoms of the disease have been recorded as early as 18 BC; however, it was not until the 1880s when Charles Laveran, a French army doctor studying parasites in the blood cells of people suffering from Malaria, linked the cause of the disease with the microorganisms, protozoa he observed. Later in 1885 two Italian scientists, Celli and Marchiafara observed that malaria was transmitted through infected blood. They also gave the malarial protozoa the name plasmodium. A year later in 1886, Golgi identified the asexual reproduction of the protozoan in infected blood. In 1898, the anopheles mosquito was suggested to be the vector by Bastianelli and Grassi. The plasmodium parasite was established to be the cause of malaria, a year later by Ronald Ross. He discovered that when non-infected humans were bitten by malarial infected mosquitoes, their red blood cells showed the presence of malarial parasites. He eventually in 1907 received the Nobel Prize for describing the complete life cycle of plasmodium.