Symptoms of malaria - be on your guard

Added: 09/27/2005

In the middle of your vacation, when the fun is in full swing, you feel that something is wrong with your health. Naturally, it often happens that we chose some unusual and exotic places for our holidays. Remember that one of the most dangerous diseases in some of the southern countries is malaria. Thus, if you feel flue-like symptoms, do not hesitate to visit a doctor. It will not harm you even if your fears turn out to have no reason.

Exotic countries have always attracted a great number of tourists from all over the world. No wonder, since it is in the human nature to find unusual and mysterious things appealing.

However, we should always keep in mind that there is always the dark side of the picture, and here, this side is diseases. If you are traveling to Central and South America, the island of Hispaniola (including Haiti and the Dominican Republic), Africa, Asia (including the Indian subcontinent, Southeast Asia and the Middle East), Eastern Europe and the South Pacific, remember that one of the most dangerous diseases is the malaria. Definitely, the risk is not equal in all these above-mentioned places; nevertheless, you should be on your guard.

All the preventive measures are taken, but suddenly, when the fun is in full swing, you start feeling the flue-like symptoms. Even if it does look like an ordinary flue, do not forget that you are in one of the countries with the malaria risk. It is extremely useful to know the symptoms of malaria more precisely. Thus, what are they?

The symptoms of malaria can include:

•               Fever.
•               Chills.
•               Headache.
•               Flu-like symptoms.
•               Muscle aches.
•               Fatigue.
•               Low blood cell counts (anemia).
•               Yellowing of the skin and whites of the eye (jaundice).

If not promptly treated, the infection with Plasmodium falciparum, the most harmful malaria parasite, may cause coma, kidney failure and death.

What should you do when the symptoms of malaria appear? There is only one answer to the question; it is necessary to seek immediate medical attention.

Malaria is always a serious disease and may be a deadly illness. Travelers, who become ill with a fever or flu-like illness either while traveling in a malaria-risk area or after returning home (for up to one year), should seek immediate medical attention and should tell the physician their travel history.

As far as you can see, you can fall ill even after your return home, which can make it difficult to diagnose the disease. Why is it so? In the countries, where malaria is not endemic any more, health care centers are not familiar with the disease. Clinicians, seeing a malaria patient, may forget to consider malaria among the potential diagnoses and not order the needed diagnostic tests. Laboratory specialists may lack experience with malaria and fail to detect the parasites, when examining blood smears under the microscope.

The other thing that can become an obstacle for a physician, especially, if you are still on vacation is that in some areas, the malaria transmission is so intense that a large proportion of the population is infected but not made ill by the parasites. Such carriers have developed enough immunity to protect them from the malarial illness, however, not from the malarial infection. In that situation, finding the malaria parasites in an ill person, does not necessarily mean that the illness is caused by the parasites.

However, if the diagnosis is confirmed, the patients with uncomplicated malaria can be conducted on an ambulatory basis (without hospitalization), but patients with severe malaria should be hospitalized as soon as possible. The doctors will undoubtedly prescribe antimalarial drugs.

Most malaria drugs, used in the treatment, are active against the parasite forms in the blood (the form that causes disease) and include:
      chloroquine
      sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (Fansidar®)
      mefloquine (Lariam®)
      atovaquone-proguanil (Malarone®)
      quinine
      doxycycline
      artemisin derivatives (not licensed for the use in the United States, but often found overseas).

Keep in mind that in some countries the so-called 'fake' drugs are sold. For details and specific warnings see Counterfeit and Substandard Antimalarial Drugs.

Even if during your holidays you find yourself or your relative with the symptoms of malaria, do not lose your head, malaria is a curable disease. The most important thing you should remember is that the time and tide, as well as the disease, waits for no man.

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