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| MALARIA |
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Malaria is widely prevalent in many parts of India.
Causative organism
It is caused by the bite of the female anopheles mosquito. The infective mosquito carries
the parasite in the saliva, and when it bites the humans, the parasite enters the blood
stream of the child, causing the disease.
Incubation period
The illness appears usually after a gap of one to three weeks after the bite of the
mosquito.
Symptoms
a. |
Child complains of headache, nausea, malaise and pain in
limbs. |
b. |
High fever with bout of chills and
shivering. After the shivering subsides, there is considerable sweating. Thereafter
depending on the type of malarial injection, fever may recur on alternate days or every 12
hours. Sometimes the child has no shivering but high fever without a break. On the other
hand, a child with a falciparum type of malaria, may not develop high fever, but may have
fits and convulsions, which requires urgent hospitalisation. |
Treatment
In India, it is become mandatory to rule out malaria for every case of fever. Malarial
parasite (Plasmodium Vivax or Plasmodium Falciparum) in the peripheral blood smear.
Nowadays the doctors, prescribe anti-malarial medicine if the clinical picture suggests
malaria, even though the peripheral blood smear is negative.
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