What happens if you get malaria?

Symptoms and Diagnosis Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may also occur. Malaria may cause anemia and jaundice (yellow coloring of the skin and eyes) because of the loss of red blood cells. If not promptly treated, the infection can become severe and may cause kidney failure, seizures, mental confusion, coma, and death.

1. What happens if malaria is left untreated?
2. What should I do if I have malaria?
3. How does malaria kill?
4. How do you feel when you have malaria?
5. Which organ is most affected in malaria?
6. How long does it take for malaria to kill?
7. What damage does malaria do to the body?
8. Do you need to be hospitalized for malaria?
9. What can you do to prevent malaria?
10. What are the chances of surviving malaria?
11. What are the stages of malaria?
12. What percentage of malaria patients die?

What happens if malaria is left untreated?

If malaria is left untreated, it could result in anemia, jaundice, mental confusion, kidney failure, a coma, seizures and even death. Cerebral malaria, which causes swelling of the blood vessels of the brain, can result in brain damage. The long-term outlook for patients with drug-resistant parasites may also be poor.

What should I do if I have malaria?

Seek medical help immediately if you develop symptoms of malaria during or after a visit to an area where the disease is found. You should still seek medical help even if it's several weeks, months or a year after you return from travelling.

How does malaria kill?

HOW IT KILLS. If drugs are not available or if the parasites are resistant to them, malaria infection can develop to anemia, hypoglycemia or cerebral malaria, in which capillaries carrying blood to the brain are blocked. Cerebral malaria can cause coma, life-long-learning disabilities, and death.

How do you feel when you have malaria?

Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite. The parasite is spread to humans through the bites of infected mosquitoes. People who have malaria usually feel very sick with a high fever and shaking chills.

Which organ is most affected in malaria?

Beyond the brain, the lungs are the most affected organ in severe malaria. Lung dysfunction occurs in 20% of all cases of adults with falciparum [3] or vivax [27] severe malaria.

How long does it take for malaria to kill?

In a non-immune individual, symptoms usually appear 10–15 days after the infective mosquito bite. The first symptoms – fever, headache, and chills – may be mild and difficult to recognize as malaria. If not treated within 24 hours, P. falciparum malaria can progress to severe illness, often leading to death.

What damage does malaria do to the body?

As many diseases caused by protozoan parasites, malaria has shown to cause detrimental effect on cardiac and skeletal muscles [5–7, 11]. Malaria in humans leads to muscle weakness, muscle fatigue, respiratory distress, kidney and liver failure, and can lead to cardiac myopathies.

Do you need to be hospitalized for malaria?

Patients who have uncomplicated malaria can be treated on an outpatient basis; however, patients with severe malaria should be hospitalized. Most drugs recommended for treatment of uncomplicated malaria cases in the malaria-endemic world are active against the parasite forms in the blood (the form that causes disease).

What can you do to prevent malaria?

Prevent Mosquito Bites

Mosquitoes that transmit malaria bite between dusk and dawn. Prevent mosquito bites by staying indoors during this time. If out-of-doors, wear a long-sleeved shirt, long pants, and a hat. Apply insect repellent to exposed skin only; do not use under clothing.

What are the chances of surviving malaria?

P. falciparum tends to be the species causing the most complications and has a high mortality if untreated. Cerebral malaria, a complication of P. falciparum malaria, has a 20% mortality rate even if treated.

What are the stages of malaria?

Blood stages of Plasmodium. Column A, Plasmodium vivax; B, P ovale; C, P malariae; D, P falciparum. Row 1, young trophozoites (ring forms); 2, growing trophozoites; 3, mature trophozoites; 4, mature schizonts; 5, macrogametocytes; 6, microgametocytes.

What percentage of malaria patients die?

According to the World Malaria Report 2018, there were 219 million cases of malaria globally in 2017 (uncertainty range 203–262 million) and 435 000 malaria deaths, representing a decrease in malaria cases and deaths rates of 18% and 28% since 2010, respectively.