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| Africa seems to have the highest concentration of Malaria. |
Symptoms:
- Anemia- Alright, not good.
- Chills- Eh, not too bad.
- Coma- Wait, what? Seriously?
- Convulsion- Oh snap...
- Fever- I suppose I could do that...
- Headache- Aspirin?
- Jaundice- What? ( a yellowish discoloration of the skin) OH. Gross.
- Muscle pain- Constantly, I assume.
- Nausea- Shoot...
- Stools, bloody- ...oh snap.
- Sweating- And its hot, too.
- Vomiting- Fluids! I need fluids!
Um. Gross.
So I did some research. Turns out, Malaria is caused by a parasite bug that is transmitted from one human to another by the bite of infected mosquitoes. Little punks. In a human, the parasites take off to the liver, where they grow up big and strong into another form, the merozoites. These then make themselves at home and enter the bloodstream and infect the red blood cells.
Once there, they do whatever it is they please, and multiply inside the red blood cells. Now, that may not seem like such a big deal, but once they get inside these cells, the cells dont like it one bit. They then rupture within 48 to 72 hours. If you hadn't known, that rupture infects more red blood cells. Don't think you're sick even after that little mosquito sucked on you? The first symptoms usually occur 10 days to 4 weeks after infection, though they can appear as early as 8 days or as long as a year after infection. Then the symptoms occur in cycles of 48 to 72 hours. Nasty, nasty, nasty. Thankfully, the outcome is expected to be good in most cases of malaria with treatment.
Here is a quote from Google Health. Hopefully, that is a legitimate source...
"Most people living in areas where malaria is common have acquired some immunity to the disease. Visitors will not have immunity, and should take preventive medications. It is important to see your health care provider well before your trip, because treatment may begin is long as 2 weeks before travel to the area, and continue for a month after you leave the area. The types of anti-malarial medications prescribed will depend on the area you visit."
I am working on these details. They seem rather important, you know? It doesnt seem like something that I should just let slide.
Alright, thanks again for reading. Questions, comments? Drop me an email or leave a comment. :D
~Trevor
"I dont like getting sick. One could say, I'm sick of it. Get it?"
Umm.....I got Malaria i wanna say pills from the farm.....or was it shots??? Im not sure but it was required when i went to Honduras to preach.... Another antibiotic they gave me was a few pills called Cipro or a type of cipro that killed parasites or anything and everything that was bacteria foreign to the body....
ReplyDeleteI'm commenting just because i don't want people to be overly scared about malaria (you know what I mean now Trev). There is no vaccine for malaria! You can have a prevention (generally doxycycline or Malarone) but it's not advisable to take it for more than a month and Doxycycline gives you problems if you're exposed to the sun (and you'll be sick as a dog if you're stomach is not completely stuffed). I've had malaria 5 times and only the first time it was bad just because we don't know what it is so we can't recognize the symptoms straight away. So the more time we let pass by the worse the symptoms become. Once you had it, you know when you have it (if you know what I mean). You will feel that you're not having flu. Then just take the tablets (2 tablets a day for a 3 days course) and I assure you that after around 5 hours from the first tablet, you'll be better already. We're out in the field the day after! So people, DO NOT BE SCARED!
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