What is Malaria?
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease caused by the parasite Plasmodium. It is a serious and sometimes fatal disease, usually causing a high fever in its victims with associated chills, shivering, headache, vomiting, poor appetite, weakness, body aches, joint pain and, in its severe forms, anaemia, multiple organ failures, convulsions, altered consciousness, coma and, ultimately, death. Although malaria can potentially become life threatening, illness and death from the disease is totally preventable.
How is Malaria Transmitted?
The malaria parasites, Plasmodium, are transmitted from one person to another by a female anopheles mosquito. The female anopheles mosquito feeds on human blood, which it requires for breeding, and it becomes infected with malaria parasites when it bites and takes a blood meal from an infected person. The malaria parasites in the infected mosquito are then injected into another person through the mosquito's saliva when the mosquito goes to bite and take a blood meal from the second person. These bites usually take place at nights when the mosquito is most active. Other less common modes of transmission are via blood transfusions, organ transplants, sharing of needles and syringes, and also transmission from a mother to her unborn child before or during delivery.
Who is most at risk of developing severe, life threatening malaria?
There are 4 types of Plasmodium species that cause malaria in humans, but the severe form of the disease is caused by Plasmodium falciparum. While anyone exposed to the bites from infected mosquitoes can develop malaria, only people who are heavily exposed to bites from mosquitoes infected with Plasmodium falciparum are at risk of dying from the disease, especially those with little or no immunity to malaria such as pregnant women, young children, travelers from areas with no malaria, people living with HIV/AIDS and people suffering from sickle cell disease. Also, poor people living in rural areas who lack knowledge and access to health care are also at risk of falling seriously sick and dying from malaria.
How can malaria be prevented?
There are basically 3 methods of preventing malaria:
1. Eradicating mosquitoes - this involves measures taken to reduce the population of mosquitoes by killing them at various stages in their life cycle, for example, using insecticide sprays on indoor walls in homes to kill adult mosquitoes, using insecticide sprays like DDT around homes to kill outdoor adult mosquitoes, poisoning mosquitoes' breeding grounds like pouring oil on stagnant pools of water around homes to kill the larval stages, and elimination of other breeding sites around homes like covering water storage containers and proper disposal of any unwanted open containers.
2. Preventing mosquito bites - this involves measures taken to reduce contact between humans and mosquitoes, for example, sleeping under a bed net. The efficacy of bed nets can be greatly increased by treating them with insecticides(insecticide treated nets or ITN's), so they can also kill the mosquitoes in addition to acting as a barrier. Other methods of preventing mosquito bites include using mosquito repellents and wearing long sleeved clothes while outdoors at night.
3. Taking antimalarial drugs - this in itself does not prevent infection with the malaria parasites which comes from mosquito bites, but it acts to prevent the development of the disease by halting the development of the parasites, hence it's also known as malaria suppression in some quarters. The antimalarial drugs taken for prevention can also be used for treatment of the disease, but for prevention they are usually taken daily, weakly or sometimes even monthly and in doses usually lower than for treatment. The use of preventive antimalarial drugs for prolonged periods, however, is not very practical because of cost issues, side effects of the drugs, or even development of drug resistance by the malaria parasites, so for this reason this method of malaria prevention is usually advocated for those most at risk of developing life threatening malaria like pregnant women, young children, travelers from areas with no malaria, people living with HIV/AIDS and sickle cell disease sufferers.
Studies have shown repeatedly that malaria prevention is much more cost effective in the long run than treating malaria, especially, with methods like the use of insecticide treated nets(ITN's). This is true for the family unit as it is for the larger society, so let us all do the little we can within our individual family units to prevent and control malaria. Government and non-governmental organizations are also implored to embark on mass distribution of free ITN's to vulnerable groups like rural dwellers and pregnant women. Above all, stakeholders must embark on continuing public health education campaigns, because it is only in doing this that we can break the vicious cycle of poverty, ignorance and disease.
