Malaria : How It Spread And Prevention || Dynamic Talk

Malaria

Malaria can be a fatal disease for human beings. Approximately 300 million people around the world get infected with malaria every year. More than 2 millions people die every year due to malaria disease.

Malaria is caused by a protozoan parasite Plasmodium. This disease spread through a bite of an insect vector--the female Anopheles mosquito which feeds on human blood. Male Anopheles mosquito feed upon plant juice.

Symptoms. Main symptoms of malaria include headache, nausea, muscular pain and high fever. Each malarial attack is of 6 to 10 hours duration and consist of three stages : 1.  Cold stage, feeling of extreme cold and shivers; 2.  Hot stage, i.e., high fever, faster respiration and heart beat; and 3.   Sweating fever, i.e., due to profuse sweating, temperature of the body goes down to normal. Even after the patient is cured of malaria, the patient feel weak and become anaemic. Malaria may also secondarily cause enlargement of spleen and liver. Presence of malarial parasite can be checked by blood test.

Prevention. Malaria is an infectious disease. It can spread from an infected person to healthy person(hosts) by the bite of female Anopheles mosquitoes (vectors). The only way to prevent malaria is to take precaution against mosquitoes bites. We can protect ourselves from the bite of mosquitoes by following methods : 

 

1.  Wire gauge should be used on doors and windows of houses to prevent entry entry of mosquitoes. 

2.  Insects-repellents ( e.g., Odomos ) should be used to prevent mosquito-bite.

3.  One should sleep under mosquito nets.

4.  Mosquitoes larva can be killed by sprinkling kerosene oil on large sized water bodies.

5.  Adult mosquitoes can be killed by spraying (e.g., BHC, malathion) on the walls of human dwellings. Insecticides are chemical poisons (toxicants), hence, regulation of mosquitoes population by them is called chemical control.

6.  The breeding grounds should be destroyed.  Thus, the ditches, puddles or swamps around human dwellings should be drained or filled. We should not allow the collection of water in any uncovered container such as water tank, pot, cooler, flower pot, discarded tyre ( tyres ), etc.

Control. A drug named quinine, which is extracted from the bark of Cinchona tree, is used to treat a person suffering from malaria. This drug kills most of the stages of malarial parasite. There are certain other drugs (medicines) which should be taken on the advice of doctor. Scientists are trying hard to develop an antimalarial vaccine.