What are the symptoms of Malaria?
Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae
The actual attacks of malaria develop when the red blood corpuscles burst, releasing a mass of parasites into the blood. The attacks do not begin until a sufficient number of blood corpuscles have been infected with parasites. The benign attacks are characterised by:
- Fever (this is normally in bursts of hotness and coldness. As the temperature drops the person will sweat, then gets hot again)
- Shivering
- Headaches
- Diarrhoea
- Nausea
- Vomiting.
If the patient builds up immune resistance to the parasite then the attacks will go after a number of weeks and under the correct treatment the parasite can go within a few days. However if on the other hand there is no treatment and the patient does not build up his/hers own immunity then the benign malaria can cause later complications; this includes the spleen to grow very large.
Plasmodium Falciparum
If the person has been infected by the Plasmodium falciparum form of the parasite the symptoms of the disease may first appear between 10- 15 days and definately by a month and can often cause malignant malaria.
In the cases of malignant malaria, caused by Plasmodium falciparum, the illness may evolve with a number of complications:
- low blood pressure (hypotension)
- kidney failure
- possible haemorrhage (bleeding)
- effects on the liver (eg infectious jaundice)
- shock and coma may also develop
- the condition may prove fatal.
To test whether the symptoms are actually malaria a sample of the patients blood is taken to a laboratory and examined under a microscope using staining techinques to detect the parasite. If the parasite is confirmed to be in the blood then the correct treatment is prescribed.
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