Types of Malaria in Human Based on Causes and Symptoms

Plasmodium inside mosquitoes causing malaria

Definition

Malaria is one of the most infectious disease in the world. The spread is various, but it is mostly found in tropical countries. Malaria used to be a very difficult disease to be diagnosed due its similarity to common fever. Thus, Southern American communities use quinine, which is derived from a tree bark named cinchona tree. Malaria is spread by mosquitoes, and the intriguing symptoms that can be observed is the presence of enlarged spleen.

The disease can be treated by medication, but it often recurs. Malaria is endemic which occurs frequently in a particular locality, in many third world nations including in Indonesia.

Types of Malaria

Human malaria is caused by four different species of a parasite belonging to genus Plasmodium, and to be specific, four of them are

1. Plasmodium falciparum, this type is the deadliest
2. Plasmodium vivax
3. Plasmodium malariae
4. Plasmodium ovale

Both P. malariae and P. ovale are fairly uncommon, and although they are rare, malaria could be attacking not only human, but also animals. However, if a person caught a malaria fever, it can infect the animals, and vice versa.

A person gets malaria when he has been bitten by a female mosquito that is absolutely infected by these four malaria parasite. The parasites penetrate the bloodstream and travel to the liver, which subsequently perform multiplication. When they reemerge into the blood, the physical symptoms could be observed. By the time a patient shows symptoms, this becomes an indicator that the parasites have multiplied in a rapid performance, so the blood vessels experience clogging which leads in rupturing blood cells.

Malaria cannot be casually transmitted directly from one person to another. Instead, a mosquito bites an infected person and then passes the infection on to the next human it bites. It is also possible to spread malaria via contaminated needles or in blood transfusion. This is the reason that all blood donors are carefully screened with questionnaires for possible exposure to malaria.

Malaria Symptoms

It is possible to contract malaria in non-endemic areas, although such as cases are very uncommon. Nevertheless, a number of cases of so-called airport malaria, in which travelers contract malaria while passing through crowded airport terminals, have been identified since 1969.

The time amount of time between the mosquito bite and the appearance of symptoms varies, depending on the strain of parasite involved. The incubation period is usually between eight and twelve days for P. falciparum or known as falciparum malaria, but it can be as long as a month for the other types. Symptoms from some strains of P. vivax may not appear until eight to ten months after mosquito bite occurred.

The primary symptom of all types of malaria is the "malaria ague". It comes from the Peruvian word which contextually means chills and fever, and this also becomes indicator for the birth of new generation of parasites within the body. In most cases, the fever has three stages, which begins with uncontrollable shivering for an hour or two, followed by a rapid spike in body temperature as high as 106 Fahrenheit or 41 Celsius, which lasts three to six hours. Then, the last stage is sudden sweat that will quickly bring down the fever. Other symptoms that can be observed are fatigue, severe headache, nausea and vomiting. As the sweating subsides, the patient typically feels exhausted and falls asleep. In many cases, this cycle of chills, fever, and sweating occurs every other day, or every third day, and may last for between a week and a month. Those with the chronic form of malaria may have relapse as long as fifty years after the initial infection.

Falciparum malaria is far more severe than other types of malaria because the parasite attacks all red blood cells, not just the young or old cells, as to other types. It causes the red blood cells to become very "sticky". A patient with this type of malaria can die within hours of the first symptoms. The fever is prolonged. So many red blood cells are destroyed that they block the blood vessels in vital organs (especially the brain and kidneys), and the spleen becomes enlarged. There may be brain damage, leading to coma and convulsions. The kidneys and liver may fail as well. Malaria in pregnancy can lead to several pregnancy problems including children brain development, premature delivery, miscarriage, or stillbirth.

Certain kinds of mosquitoes belonging to the genus Anopheles can pick up the parasite by biting an infected human. This is true as long as that person has parasites in his/ her blood. Since strains of malaria do not protect against each other, it is possible to be reinfected with the parasites again and again. It is also possible to develop a chronic infection without developing an effective immune response.

References: The Gale Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine