All About Malaria Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

All About Malaria - Coursework Example451). As studies imply (Rietveld & Schlagenhauf 2008, p.214), malaria produces more complications in pregnant women and young children because these groups are more vulnerable to malaria. If diagnosis for this infection is non done at proper time, it may lead to disastrous results. The disease is said to have supplied by chimpanzees and gorillas to mankind. The comparative lack of genetic variations in plasmodium falciparum also testifies that it has the recent origin from some different primate species (ibid). How malaria is caused Normally this disease is transmitted to people by a certain kind of egg-producing(prenominal) mosquito called Anopheles. These parasites are usually found in the saliva of the female mosquitoes of this type. As described by Jacoby and Youngson (2004 p. 1123), when a person is bitten by a female mosquito, the parasite enters the bloodstream through the mosquitos saliva and makes their management to the liver. I nitially, they cause no troubles, but the infected liver then gets damaged releasing merozoites that badly walk out the red blood cells (ibid). The multiplying parasites eventually cause the signs of malaria in the host. As stated above, the parasite that causes malaria is called a plasmodium. Typically, there are four different species that cause this disease in man. They are plasmodium falciparum, plasmodium malariae, plasmodium vivax and plasmodium ovale. Among them, the most dangerous one is plasmodium falciparum as it causes most serious complications and often becomes fatal. The rests are less malignant that cause severe fever at alternative intervals. Another peculiar peculiar(prenominal) of these non falciparum parasites is that they may get into the liver and be inactive for yen and the disease will be caused long after original infection (ibid). The different phases of communication and the life cycle of malaria parasites in the human torso are illustrated in figure 1 . (Figure 1 Source Davis & Shiel, n.d.) Symptoms of Malaria If a person is affected with malaria, the signs will be visible from ten to twenty eight days of the mosquito bite. The first sign will be weariness and loss of liveliness. The affected person will have continuous muscle pain and pain in the joints. Some other symptoms of malaria include fever, headache, nausea and diarrhea. The symptoms also include shivering and fever, heavy sweating and kick the bucket in temperature. As Ichhpujani and Bhatia (2002 p. 98) points out, Blackwater fever is another complication of malaria in which red blood cells break and eat up hemoglobin directly into the blood. Cotter (2001, p.39) finds that hemolysis, which is the phenomenon of red blood cell breakage, is the direct cause of Blackwater fever. The most alarming factor about malaria is that the parasites have developed resistance to a number of malaria medicines. Malaria Diagnosis It is a operose task to diagnose malaria with the cli nical criteria as the general symptoms of malaria such as fever and headache are common to a number of illnesses. Therefore, in highly industrialized countries where malaria is rarely reported, physicians have to order peculiar(prenominal) test to identify the presence of malaria. The widely used method of malaria diagnosis test is the Giems blood touch on a microscope slide that is discolored to show the parasites that have got into the red blood cells. The slide of such a blood smear showing Plasmodium parasites are pictorially represented in figure 2. (Figure 2 Source Jacoby & Younson, 2004.). Though this test is comparatively easy, the