Malaria; The Liver and Red Blood Cell Fetal Disease
When we mention the disease of the Liver, we mention hepatitis A, hepatitis B, and hepatitis C, and when we are asked to list the disease of the Red Blood Cell, anemia cannot be forgotten but today, I am talking about a life-threatening disease that we do not include when we talk about liver and red blood cell disease, and that's Malaria. Malaria is a fatal disease transmitted to Humans and other animals from an infected mosquito. Understanding how malaria becomes a thing isn't a life cycle you are not familiar with, I am not talking about the life cycle of a mosquito which has to do with an egg then a larva, then a Pupa, before we get an adult mosquito, I am talking about how mosquito gets into the body. In this post, I will be looking at Plasmodium Falciparum, as it is the most common type of malaria infection.
(https://pixnio.com)
Female Anopheles Mosquitos bite humans so they can be able to feed on a blood meal, and this is done with the help of inserting the proboscis into the skin so as to be able to access blood vessels in the skin. When the Female Anopheles mosquito reaches a blood vessel, it begins to suck and feed on the blood. If they were not infected, then the patient will not have to worry about malaria but when the Female Anopheles mosquito is infected by the parasite Plasmodium, the parasite swims through her salivary gland into the bloodstream. Let me quickly state that female Anopheles mosquitoes feed on blood while male mosquitos feed on flower nectars. The Sporozoites then swim through the bloodstream and then reaches the liver, infecting the liver. In the liver, they reproduce to become Merozoites which are then expelled into the bloodstream from the liver and infect the Red Blood Cells. While they leave the liver cells they destroy some of the liver cells. In the Red Blood Cells, they start to reproduce asexually and they destroy the red blood cells to infect other red blood cells. In the red blood cell, some merozoite change to gametocytes which are males and females. When another mosquito bites, either infected or not are likely to ingest the gametocyte as they suck off the blood. The Gametocyte stays in the gut of the mosquito where they mature and fuse to form a zygote which then develops to become a sporozoite which then swims back to the saliva of the mosquito waiting to be injected into another human and other warm-blooded animals.
It takes two weeks after being bitten by a mosquito before symptoms begin to show. This is because the plasmodium spends about a week or two in the liver and at this point it is asymptomatic but when they begin to burst out of the liver cells patient begins to see symptoms, it becomes very worse when the Red Blood Cell starts to get destroyed showing flu-like symptoms such as fever, headache, muscle pains and feeling unwell, in a symptom is known as paroxysm where there will be a cycle between feeling cold and running a fever between days and this happens with bursts from the red blood cell. When the red blood cell ruptures, the bilirubin from the blood sticks to the skin and could cause hemolytic jaundice. Malaria can be classified into uncomplicated and severe malaria. With uncomplicated malaria, the patient just shows the symptoms with paroxysms and with severe malaria, it can affect organs such as the lungs, anemia, or it might affect the central nervous system.
(https://commons.wikimedia.org)
Diagnosing malaria starts with checking for the symptoms of malaria, then a physical examination of the patient to check for inflammation, and skin color (pallor), jaundice, and lab tests are done to diagnose the disease, and these tests can be done via blood smear to identify thick and thin blood film microscopy test. In the thick film, the plasmodium can be identified but it is not clear, while in the thin film, it is very detailed showing trophozoites, merozoites, and another test is the Rapid Detection Test (RDT) which gives the result in a few minutes. It has to do with collecting a drop of blood from a fingertip with a dipstick which has antibodies that look for enzymes in the blood as a result of the lysing as well as plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase.
After diagnosis, treatment is required to start immediately, and these treatments can be antimalarial drugs, and to use the drugs, it is important to identify the type of plasmodium, if they are resistant to any type of drug, and the severity. Malaria can be treated with combination therapy to prevent resistance to the malaria parasite resistance. Using Artemisinin Combination Therapy to treat malaria, as artesunate makes the environment toxic for the parasite and makes them die and it is effective against all types of plasmodium. Also, using sulfadoxine and Pyrimethamine will prevent the parasite from replicating its DNA making it difficult to reproduce. The malaria parasite is resistant to chloroquine which is a drug that prevents the parasite from converting heme to hemozoin crystals. With Vivax, primaquine is used to kill the parasite in the liver. Primaquine blocks oxidative metabolism in the hypnozoites in the liver and it attacks other types of malaria as well. In severe cases, IV Artesunate can be used as well as treating other complications.
Prevention of Malaria can be possible if the cause is first understood. For people to become infected by malaria, then certain conditions are expected. There is a high population density, and there is a large presence of female anopheles mosquito causing an nteraction between the two population. To prevent malaria, using insecticides (pyrethroid) to kill mosquitoes and reduce the population of mosquito. Using bug repelant on cloth and skin to repel mosquitoes. Clean environment, and ensure there are no stagnant waters to help breed mosquitoes, Using mosquito nets to prevent the entrance of mosquitoes into our sleeping area.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK556600/
https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/malaria
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6617065/
https://www.statpearls.com/ArticleLibrary/viewarticle/24662
https://malariajournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12936-019-2724-z
Thanks for your contribution to the STEMsocial community. Feel free to join us on discord to get to know the rest of us!
Please consider delegating to the @stemsocial account (85% of the curation rewards are returned).
Thanks for including @stemsocial as a beneficiary, which gives you stronger support.
In our society, we always hold malaria lightly even though it has kill a lot of people