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Epidemiology:

• Every year 300 million to 500 million people suffer from this disease (90% of them in sub-Saharan Africa, two thirds of the remaining cases occur in six countries- India, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Colombia and Solomon Islands).
• About 1.5 million to 3 million people die of malaria every year (85% of these occur in Africa), accounting for about 4-5% of all fatalities in the world.
• Malaria ranks third among the major infectious diseases in causing deaths- after pneumococcal acute respiratory infections and tuberculosis. It is expected that by the turn of the century malaria would be the number one infectious killer disease in the world.
• It accounts for 2.6 percent of the total disease burden of the world.

Malaria was nearly eradicated from most parts of the world by the early 60's, owing to anti malarial campaigns world over under the guidance of World Health Organisation.

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Symptoms:

• High fever
• Chills and violent shivering
• Heavy sweating
• Fatigue, headache and muscle pain.

The symptoms can be classified in three phases: Cold stage, Hot stage and sweating stage. The febrile episode starts with shaking chills, usually at midday between 11 a.m. to 12 noon, and this lasts from 15 minutes to 1 hour (The cold stage), followed by high grade fever, even reaching above 106⁰ F, which lasts 2 to 6 hours (The hot stage). This is followed by profuse sweating and the fever gradually subsides over 2-4 hours. These typical features are seen after the infection gets established for about a week.

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Treatment:

• The diagnosis is confirmed by identifying the malarial parasite in the blood smear under the microscope. Treatment depends upon the type of malaria and the severity of infection. In case of falcipuram malaria, hospitalisation with oral or intravenous anti-malarial drugs is required.
• Other types of malaria can be treated with oral anti-malarial drugs. The common anti-malarial drugs include: Chloroquine, Quinine, Tetracycline, Mefloquine, Hydroxychloroquine among others.

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