What Treatments Are There For Malaria?

Prevention is a key method in stopping the spread of Malaria this means that if a person if going to an affected country certain prevention techinques should be put into place; they include:

• Wearing long sleeved tops and trousers, especially at night when the mosquitos are more likely to be around.
• Having mosquito nets around the bed whilst sleeping.
• Spraying mosquito repellant at regular intervals.
• Taking anti-malaria tablets at the correct times. ie this could mean starting the prescription 3 weeks in advance of departing to the affected country.

However if after all these prevention methods are used and the symtoms of malaria appear the person should be sent immediately to hospital just in case it is the Plasmodium flaciparum form of the disease. If it is then the person will have to be hospitalized however if it is one of the other three forms the person can normally leave in outpatients.

Once the disease is diagnosed there are number of anti malaria drugs prescribed to get rid of the disease. These include drug called Chloroquine, which is a very cheap and effective drug in the treatment of malaria. However in recent years there has started to become a resistance to the drug by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite. This resistance has meant in some areas there has become a resistance to the drug meaning it is no longer efficient. This resistancte is spreading day by day and could be come a major problem if a just as effective replacement drug is not found.

One of the latest drugs to be tested if proprananol, a beta blocker, that blocks the parasites ability to enter the red blood cells.

At the moment there is no vaccine against malaria however there is lots of research going into finding one. More about this can be seen on the news page.