Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease caused by a of the genus Plasmodium.

Epidemiology
Malaria causes about 250 million cases of fever and approximately one million deaths annually. The vast majority of cases occur in children under 5 years old; pregnant women are also especially vulnerable.

Statistics are unknown because many cases occur in rural areas where people do not have access to hospitals or the means to afford health care. As a consequence, the majority of cases are undocumented.

Malaria is not just a disease commonly associated with poverty but also a cause of poverty and a major hindrance to economic development. Tropical regions are affected most, however malaria’s furthest extent reaches into some temperate zones with extreme seasonal changes.

CAUSES:
Five species of the plasmodium parasite can infect humans; the most serious forms of the disease are caused by Plasmodium falciparum. Malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae causes milder disease in humans that is not generally fatal.

Malaria is naturally transmitted by the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito. When a mosquito bites an infected person, a small amount of blood is taken, which contains malaria parasites

Signs and symptoms

Symptoms of malaria include
– Central head ache
– Muscular:
– Fatigue
– Pain
– Back ache
– Dry cough
– Nausea and vomitings
– fever
– shivering
– arthralgia(joint pain)
– vomiting, anemia (caused by hemolysis)
– hemoglobinuria
– retinal damage
– convulsions

The classic symptom of malaria is cyclical occurrence of sudden coldness followed by rigor and then fever and sweating lasting four to six hours, occurring every two days in P. vivax and P. ovale infections, while every three for P. malariae. P. falciparum can have recurrent fever every 36-48 hours or a less pronounced and almost continuous fever. Malaria has been found to cause cognitive impairments, especially in children. It causes widespread anemia during a period of rapid brain development and also direct brain damage.

COMPLICATIONS:

Consequences of severe malaria include
– coma and death if untreated-young children and pregnant women are especially vulnerable.
– Splenomegaly
– headache,
– cerebral ischemia
– hepatomegaly (enlarged liver),
– hypoglycemia,
– hemoglobinuria with renal failure may occur. Renal failure may cause blackwater fever, where hemoglobin from lysed red blood cells leaks into the urine.

Severe malaria can progress extremely rapidly and cause death within hours or days. In the most severe cases of the disease, fatality rates can exceed 20%, even with intensive care and treatment. In endemic areas, treatment is often less satisfactory and the overall fatality rate for all cases of malaria can be as high as one in ten.

Chronic malaria is seen in both P. vivax and P. ovale, but not in P. falciparum. Here, the disease can relapse months or years after exposure, due to the presence of latent parasites in the liver.

Diagnosis
1. Symptomatic diagnosis
Areas that cannot afford even simple laboratory diagnostic tests often use only a history of subjective fever as the indication to treat for malaria.

2. Microscopic examination of blood films
The most economic, preferred, and reliable diagnosis of malaria is microscopic examination of blood films because each of the four major parasite species has distinguishing characteristics. Two sorts of blood film are traditionally used.
Thin films are similar to usual blood films and allow species identification because the parasite’s appearance is best preserved in this preparation.

Thick films allow to screen a larger volume of blood and are about eleven times more sensitive than the thin film, so picking up low levels of infection is easier on the thick film, but the appearance of the parasite is much more distorted and therefore distinguishing between the different species can be much more difficult.

3. Antigen tests
Depending on which monoclonal antibodies are used, this type of assay can distinguish between all five different species of human malaria parasites, because of antigenic differences between their pLDH isoenzymes.

4.Molecular methods
Molecular methods are available in some clinical laboratories and rapid real-time assays for example, QT-NASBAbased on the polymerase chain reaction are being developed with the hope of being able to deploy them in endemic areas.

Prevention includes :

– prophylactic drugs
– mosquito eradication
– the prevention of mosquito bites

The continued existence of malaria in an area requires a combination of high human population density, high mosquito population density, and high rates of transmission from humans to mosquitoes and from mosquitoes to humans.

– Many countries are seeing an increasing number of imported malaria cases due to extensive travel and migration.

– Vector control

– In some areas, the draining of wetland breeding grounds and better sanitation were adequate. Malaria was eliminated from the northern parts of the USA in the early 20th century by such methods, and the use of the pesticide DDT eliminated it from the South by 1951. In 2002, there were 1,059 cases of malaria reported in the US, including eight deaths, but in only five of those cases was the disease contracted in the United States.

– Before DDT, malaria was successfully eradicated or controlled also in several tropical areas by removing or poisoning the breeding grounds of the mosquitoes or the aquatic habitats of the larva stages, for example by filling or applying oil to places with standing water.

– Sterile insect technique is emerging as a potential mosquito control method. Progress towards transgenic, or genetically modified insects suggest that wild mosquito populations could be made malaria-resistant.

– Prophylactic drugs

– Quinine was used starting in the 17th century as a prophylactic against malaria. The development of more effective alternatives such as quinacrine, chloroquine, and primaquine in the 20th century reduced the reliance on quinine.

– The use of prophylactic drugs where malaria-bearing mosquitoes are present may encourage the development of partial immunity

– Indoor residual spraying

– Mosquito nets and bedclothes

– Other methods

– Education in recognizing the symptoms of malaria has reduced the number of cases in some areas of the developing world by as much as 20%.

HOMOEOPATHIC APPROACH:

CINCHONA OFFICIANALIS:

– Considered as the similimum in most of the malarial fevers
– Periodical fever with shivering
– Frontal head ache worsened by physical or mental exertion
– Dull aching in the region of the spleen
– Nervous system is sensitive

NATRUM MURIATICUM:

-Patent is anaemic ,emaciated
-Person is inclined to take cold
-Extreme thist and increased perspiration
-Person craves salty things
-Stiches in the region of spleen with congestion of the region

ARNICA MONTANA

– Patient is dull and apathetic
– The surface which he laid on feels very hard and searches for the soft place
– Offensive discharges
– Patient is in the delirious condition ,when waken from sleep answers correctly and then sleeps back again
– Thirst for large quantities of cold water

CEONANTHUS:

– Pain in the spleenic region with stitches
– Enlargement of the spleen
– Cough with shortness of breath
-Pain in whole left side

The remedies of use are

CHININUM SULPHURATUM

ARANEA DIADEMA

GRINDELIA ROBUSTA

RANUNCULOUS BULBOSA

Author Bio: Dr Guptha faculty for the medical billing training

Category: Medicines and Remedies
Keywords: medical, coding, billing, training,