Malaria is still one of the most prevalent diseases in the world, especially in Asia, Africa, and parts of Europe. It has been eliminated from this country, but military personnel and civilians who have lived in tropical regions have been exposed to it. Some of them contract the disease, which may recur long after they leave the service. Malaria does not kill very frequently, but it is disabling because of its high fever, severe chills, and long duration.
Symptoms
The disease is caused by a parasite so small that it can live and reproduce in the tiny red blood corpuscles. This parasite is carried from a person with malaria by the female anopheles mosquito. While feeding on the infected person, the mosquito sucks up infected blood. It transmits the infection to a healthy human being on whom it subsequently feeds.
About two weeks later, that person will develop characteristic symptoms. These include chills and shaking and a high fever that subsides in several hours, leaving the sick person drenched in sweat, exhausted, and very sleepy. The types of malaria are named accordingly to the interval between the fevers—for example, tertian, every third day; quatran, every fourth day.
If the disease is not treated, the chills and fever may continue for months before the body overcomes the acute stages. Even then, malarial symptoms can recur if the person’s resistance is lowered by strenuous activity, alcoholic excesses, or exposure to cold. Persons chronically ill with malaria suffer from anaemia, headaches, muscle pains, and general poor health.
Diagnosis is made by the doctor when he examines a drop of blood under the microscope. The malarial parasites are generally abundant and easily recognized.
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