The CLI Newsletter - Volume 2 - Issue Nr. 29 - If the page is not posted correctly, click here
Malaria
Every year, one million people die of malaria, and the fact that the majority of fatalities are younger than five exacerbates this human tragedy. Even for an adult, going through a bout of malaria is an ordeal. When infected with Plasmodium falciparum, a general feeling of malaise accompanied by excruciating headaches can signal the start of the 'malaria attack'.
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It is one of the great myths in popular medicine today that people can become immune to malaria. It is impossible to become immune to Plasmodium spp. in the same way that one can become immune to measles, rubella or hepatitis B. Adults who have had malaria several times, and who have survived it, exhibit fewer clinical symptoms in subsequent attacks.
Every travel clinic in the world now advocates the same rule of thumb for the prevention of malaria. Local residents and travellers are given the same information in countries where malaria is endemic, and this has helped to control the disease in quite a few areas. Malaria is caused by a protozoan parasite within erythrocytes and is transmitted naturally from person to person by an anopheles mosquito vector that bites only between dusk and dawn
Rapid immunodiagnosis of malaria by Inverness Medical
