Question

Write a short note on malaria as a disease its causative, target organs symptoms and control.

Answer 1

Answer:

Explanation:Malaria is a life-threatening disease. It’s typically transmitted through the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito. Infected mosquitoes carry the Plasmodium parasite. When this mosquito bites you, the parasite is released into your bloodstream.

Once the parasites are inside your body, they travel to the liver, where they mature. After several days, the mature parasites enter the bloodstream and begin to infect red blood cells.

Within 48 to 72 hours, the parasites inside the red blood cells multiply, causing the infected cells to burst open.

The parasites continue to infect red blood cells, resulting in symptoms that occur in cycles that last two to three days at a time.

Malaria is typically found in tropical and subtropical climates where the parasites can live.

What causes malaria?

Malaria can occur if a mosquito infected with the Plasmodium parasite bites you. There are four kinds of malaria parasites that can infect humans: Plasmodium vivax, P. ovale, P. malariae, and P. falciparum.

P. falciparum causes a more severe form of the disease and those who contract this form of malaria have a higher risk of death. An infected mother can also pass the disease to her baby at birth. This is known as congenital malaria.

Malaria is transmitted by blood, so it can also be transmitted through:

an organ transplant

a transfusion

use of shared needles or syringes.

Symptoms of Malaria

The symptoms of malaria typically develop within 10 days to 4 weeks following the infection. In some cases, symptoms may not develop for several months. Some malarial parasites can enter the body but will be dormant for long periods of time.

Common symptoms of malaria include:

shaking chills that can range from moderate to severe

high fever

profuse sweating

headache

nausea

vomiting

abdominal pain

diarrhea

anemia

muscle pain

convulsions

coma

bloody stools.

Diagnosis and Treatment : infected person is diagnosed and treated with ACT drugs.

Answer 2

Answer:

Malaria is a human disease caused by members of plasmodium spp, the plasmodium spp lives inside red blood cells of vertebrate with two complete life cycle one in vertebrate and the other in the invertebrate (mosquito) namely schizogony and sporogony respectively.

Target organ

about one hour after after the mosquito has injected the sporozoites into man, it disappear from the blood stream and penetrate the parenchyma cells of liver to undergo schizogony to produce several numbers of merozoites, the merozoites reinvade the blood stream and penetrate the red blood cells to undergo schizogony after which the red blood cells ruptures and releases it to the blood stream with other wastes.

symptoms

Malaria symptoms is confused with other fevers in the tropics which calls for its diagnosis for confirmation of the disease through a thick and thin smear from blood collection.

control

Malaria can be controlled through the following ways;

Total reduction or abstinence from some human activities that could enhance the breeding sites of mosquito such as growing near houses, littering of houses with cans, abandoned old vehicles, plastic packages, storage of water among others.

Also the usage of drugs such as mefloquine is effective in the treatment of malaria or chloroquine

Explanation: