Malaria...Describe the disease. What are its major manifestations? How does the

Question

Malaria...Describe the disease. What are its major manifestations? How does the disease affect individuals who get it? You should describe the symptoms and signs of the disease so that an educated lay person would have a good sense of what the disease is and how it affects people after reading your description. If there are important complications or long-term sequelae of this communicable disease, these should be included in your description. Who is the disease most likely to affect (are there differences according to gender, age, racial/ethnic group, or other host characteristics?). Where is it common? Have there been important trends in occurrence over time? Are asymptomatic cases common and how do they affect the epidemiology and control of the disease? Is longterm/chronic infection an issue with this disease? If so, how does this affect the prospects for prevention and control?

Explanation / Answer

Malaria: it is an infectious disease that is mosquito borne and can be caused in humans and other animals. The disease is caused by single cells parasitic protozoans that belong to the Plasmodium type . There are various symptoms caused by malaria which are as follows :

- fever

- feeling of being tired

- headaches and vomiting

- the initials manifestations are common to flu like symptoms

- one of the most indicative symptom is paroxysm- sudden cold and shiver followed by fever and sweating.

Transmission

- transmission is by an infected female mosquito, namely Anopheles mosquito,

- the parasites are introduced by the mosquito from the saliva of the carrier female , into a healthy target individuals blood.

- from there, the parasites would travel in to the liver, where they would mature and reproduce.

Prevalence: prevalence of this disease is more in the tropical and subtropical areas in a band around the equator. This is also found in the Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and Latin American regions.  There are various types of malaria :

-  P. falciparum , P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae result in a milder form of malaria.

- P. knowlesi is more severe but a more rarely found type.

Recent trends :

The rates of disease has seen to be reduced since 2000 and has been observed to be reduced by 37%. Although, there was some increase observed in the prevalence in the year 2014.

This does not refer to as a long term illness unless very severe cases have occurred. This is treated by anti malarial medications depending upon the type of disease and the severity of the disease. Also, resistance to the disease has been observed, especially in sickle cell anemic individuals.

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