What is malaria?
Malaria (and malaria) is an infectious disease caused by a parasite of the genus Plasmodium of which there are 4 species specific to humans: Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae. It is transmitted to humans by a particular species of mosquito: the anopheles, and only by female mosquitoes. It can be abbreviated in almost all warm tropical regions of the globe, where the mosquito can live primarily in sub-Saharan Africa, Southeast Asia, East and Latin America.

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Malaria affects hundreds of countries around the world, particularly tropical disadvantaged. An estimated 250 million cases of malaria each year, nearly one million deaths.


What is the mechanism of malaria?
The transmission of the parasite is through the saliva of female Anopheles just bite the man. Plasmodium wins the liver through the bloodstream. For about a week, it multiplies and changes in liver cells which eventually burst. Some parasites and is converted and released into the bloodstream. They go and infect red blood cells, multiply and turn again, and result in breakage of the red blood cells, which will release new parasites to colonize other red blood cells and so on. The break in large quantities and at the same time red blood cells (RBCs) cause of the crisis (or “clinical malaria”), which are significant fever. Such access can be fatal if the infection is caused by Plasmodium falciparum.


The processing cycle of the parasite in red blood cells during 48 to 72 hours depending on the species of parasite attacks occur every 48 or 72 hours.
The parasites that remained in the liver before they multiply and cause relapses months (Plasmodium falciparum) or years (other species) after, even without a new injection of Anopheles.
The spread of the disease is then simple: Anopheles that bites an infected person will take this and contaminated blood and transmit it to another person at another blood meal, and so on.

What are the signs of malaria?
When Plasmodium beginning to reach the blood and multiply, or between 7 and 14 days after the mosquito bite (the time of the multiplication in the liver), develop symptoms suggestive little further, especially with fever, accompanied frequent digestive problems (upset stomach, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea).
The evolution then depends on the species responsible.
When the disease is caused by the species Plasmodium falciparum, is most dangerous because it may be responsible for a pernicious (or cerebral) and death. Indeed, the parasitized erythrocytes by Plasmodium clog the blood vessels of the brain, can cause intense headache, confusion, convulsions, agitation or coma, or vessels of other organs (kidney, liver in particular). Without treatment, the development of pernicious is fatal.
When the disease is related to other species as Plasmodium falciparum, the malaria attack (when all red blood cells burst at once) is characterized by the succession every 2 or 3 days of severe chills (for several hours the patient was very cold and can not get warm), a high fever (for 3 or 4 hours, the temperature rises to 40-40 ° 5C, including leading major headache) , sweats and fatigue. Each attack lasts between 6 and 8 hours. In the absence of specific treatment, they are repeated at varying rates and disappeared spontaneously after a certain time (several weeks to several years of evolution depending on the species in question), then healed without sequel.
A crisis can bring about a deterioration of general condition, anemia (due to destruction of red blood cells) or splenomegaly (enlargement of the spleen, one of the functions of the spleen of the elimination of red blood cells unusable by abnormal body like malaria).

How is it diagnosed?
Any fever after returning from a tropical country has to think of malaria. Diagnosis is made from a drop of blood which is then spread on a slide objects, fixed, stained and examined microscopically (blood smear, rapid review but lacking sensitivity, and thick, examination slower but more sensitive).

How to treat malaria?
Depending on the severity of the malaria and the parasite species, treatment may be oral or intravenous, with different anti-malarial drugs with different mechanisms of action. Sadly over the years and partly due to misuse of drugs on the ground, the more dangerous parasite (Plasmodium falciparum) has developed resistance to some antimalarial drugs.

Is it possible to avoid malaria?
Preventive treatments exist, differentiated by regions. Before visiting a tropical country where malaria is prevalent, it is therefore essential to consult a doctor, preferably specializing in travel medicine. But if that chemoprophylaxis reduces the risk of being infected or having a severe form of the disease, it is not infallible and should definitely be associated with protective measures against mosquitoes, which bite mostly at night and night: the evening wear long, loose clothing, tight wrists and ankles and impregnated with insecticide, wear socks and closed shoes, sleeping with the air conditioning or under a mosquito net impregnated with insecticide, to protect windows a net, apply repellent over the whole body, use of insecticides indoors and outdoors.

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