What is the causes of Malaria

Malaria

Malaria is a disease characterized by high fever, headache, shaking chills, sweating, splenomegaly, and anemia. Malaria is caused by parasites related to the genus Plasmodium. The parasites are carried by the female anopheles mosquito. When an infected anopheles mosquito bites a person, that person develops the symptoms of Malaria.

Causes of Malaria

Malaria is caused by 4 different types of plasmodium species

• Plasmodium falciparum
• Plasmodium vicax
• Plasmodium malariae
• Plasmodium ovale

Plasmodium falciparum causes a more severe form of the disease and those who have this form of malaria have a higher risk of death

Malaria is transmitted by blood, so it can also be transmitted by

• Organ transplant
• Blood transfusion
• Uses of shared needles or syringes

Signs and symptoms of malaria

Signs and symptoms of malaria are

• High fever
• Shaking chills
• Sweating
• Headache
• Splenomegaly
• Diarrhea
• Anemia

Signs and symptoms may appear within 8 to 30 days( incubation period)after biting by an infected anopheles mosquito.

The incubation period for plasmodium falciparum is 7 to 14 days

How plasmodium parasites cause malaria: The life cycle of plasmodium

These are the following steps that how plasmodium parasites cause malaria

• When an infected anopheles mosquito bites a person it injects plasmodium in the form of sporozoites into the bloodstream of the person
• Then sporozoites enter into the liver and infect liver cells called hepatocytes. Where sporozoites start asexual reproduction, develop into merozoites, and rupture the liver cells.
• Then merozoites enter into the blood and infect RBC. Where merozoite starts asexual reproduction and ruptures RBC. At this stage, the malarial symptoms appear.
• When another anopheles mosquito bites that infected person. The mosquito takes up the merozoites(gametes). Then fertilization occurs in the gut of the Anopheles mosquito. It forms a zygote and then sporozoites. Sporozoites then move to the salivary gland and are present in the saliva of the Anopheles mosquito.

Risk factors of malaria

There are the following risk factors for malaria

• Living in a region where malaria is present
• Traveling to an area where malaria is common
• Patients with AIDS have a high risk of malaria
• Pregnant women have a high chance to get malaria
• Infants and child

Diagnosis of malaria

For the diagnosis of malaria, the doctor will take

• Your medical history, recent travel, and where are you living.
• Will conduct your physical examination.
• And take your blood for a microscopic examination to confirm which type of plasmodium is present in your blood.

Treatment

For the treatment, the doctor will prescribe antimalarial drugs which will help to kill the parasite.

The antimalarial drugs include:

• Chloroquine phosphate
• Artemisinin-based combination therapies
• Malarone
• Qualaquin with vibramycin
• Primaquine phosphate