Research Paper on Malaria Disease

History of Malaria Disease

The history of the malaria disease stretches over a long prehistoric origin as a zoonic infection that started within the African primates into the 21st century noted for more than 4,000 years. According to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2010), the history encompasses different settings that define the evolution from its discovery to present. In the first setup, about Malaria's ancient history (2700 BCE-340CE), it was described in ancient Chinese medical writings. By the 4th century BCE, malaria was widely recognized In Greece and was claiming may lives. However, although the Chinese had already developed different treatments for the fever, in the early 17th century following the arrival of the new world, Spanish learned interventions to treat illnesses. With the use of a tree back an antimalarial drug was invented, known as Quinine, which is still used today. In 1880, a French surgeon, Charles Louis Alphonse noticed parasites in the blood of an individual suffering from malaria disease. Through the entire period, there were different discoveries about malaria based on the distinct differentiation of species of malaria; however, the revelation that mosquitoes transmitted malaria parasites were made in 1897-1899 by a British officer, Ronald Ross along with the existence of malaria "plasmodium" mosquitoes (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2010). To date, there are different discoveries concerning malaria disease surfacing.

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Description of Malaria Disease

Malaria disease as an infection that often reoccurs is a growing problem in the United States; however, there is a treatment for the disease currently. According to the World Health Organization, 214 cases of malaria were reported in 2015 and caused the death of almost 438,000 individuals most of them being children. There are approximately 2000 cases of malaria diagnosis in the United States yearly mostly caused by the circumstances of immigration and worldwide travels. The appearance of fever is a significant symptom attributed to the infection which people tend to ignore most of the times. It is diagnosed from a blood smear studied under a microscope in search for the malaria parasite; however, it is treated with particular medication and observation of prescriptions (Guinovart et al., 2006).

Causes of Malaria Disease

Malaria disease is caused by protozoa of the genus Plasmodium transmitted to people by mosquito bites. The genus Plasmodium is in different species; (Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium malaria, Plasmodium ovale, and Plasmodium falciparum). A person acquires the infection if they are bitten by a female mosquito looking for a blood meal and in infected with the malaria-causing parasite. The life cycle of the Plasmodium include sporozoites, merozoites, and gametocytes. When a plasmodium mosquito bites an infected individual, it transmits the sporozoite stage of the organism to human where the parasites travel into the bloodstream and make way into the liver and begin multiplying through the production of merozoites. Merozoites leave the liver into the red blood cells to reproduce which may create a gametocyte in an individual's bloodstream. However, the time within which a mosquito bite and appearance of the first symptoms appears varies depending on the involved parasite. Mostly, the incubation period is between 8 to 12 days for the Plasmodium falciparum (which is the deadliest), but it could be more than a month while some strains of Plasmodium vivax may not surface until 8 to 10 months after a mosquito bite (World Health Organization, 2018). The falciparum malaria is severe than other types of the disease since it attacks all the blood cells and not the old and young cells as different types of sickness do cause the red blood cells to become sticky. In consideration of the symptoms of the disease, the first visible symptoms are (chills and fever) and have three stages. From uncontrollable shivering to a rapid spike in body temperature and may cause high sweating. Fatigue, nausea, and severe headaches are other symptoms that an infected individual may experience (World Health Organization, 2018).

Prognosis of Malaria Disease

Usually, malaria is not fatal if adequately diagnosed and treated. In cases of a delay in diagnosis, they occur because the disease may be rarely seen and patients may tend to ignore the first symptoms of the disease which could deliver a risk of serious complication; however, there are available treatments after diagnosis.

Effects of Malaria Disease

With the different symptoms of malaria disease, infections with Plasmodium falciparum most likely leads to potential and fatal consequences. If left untreated, there are chances that it could cause death with hours of infection. However, according to World Health Organization (2018), cerebral malaria may tend to occur in a case where infected blood vessels block the vessels to the brain which could lead to brain damage and brain swelling. On the other hand, hemolytic anemia is another effect of malaria disease. In hemolytic anemia, the bone marrow can not keep up with the destruction rate of the red blood cells caused by the malaria disease which could lead to fatigue, rapid heart rate as well as shortness of breath.

Prevention of Malaria Disease

Often, malaria can be prevented with the use of an ABCD approach to the prevention of the disease that ensures people understand what is required of them. It involves:

• Awareness of risk - finding out whether one is at risk of contracting malaria, for example, in case one is planning to travel to a different country.
• Bite prevention - it includes the ability to avoid any bites by the female mosquito that may transmit the malaria parasite. One can prevent bites by using a treated mosquito net, insect repellants, and covering legs and arms.
• Check the need for malaria prevention medicine - in this section; one needs to get proper antimalaria medicine according to a doctor's prescription.
• Diagnosis - in case one feels or detects any early signs and symptoms of malaria, it is appropriate to seek medical attention.

References

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2010). The history of malaria, an ancient disease. Atlanta, GA: CDC.

Guinovart, C., Navia, M. M., Tanner, M., & Alonso, P. L. (2006). Malaria: burden of disease. Current molecular medicine, 6(2), 137-140.

World Health Organization. (2018). Fact sheet about Malaria. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/en/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria