Malaria - Causes, Symptoms, Prevention and Life Cycle [HINDI] | Dr. Shikha Parmar

Malaria - Causes, Symptoms, Prevention and Life Cycle [HINDI] by Dr. Shikha Parmar

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes.
Malaria is caused by single-celled microorganisms of the Plasmodium group.The disease is most commonly spread by an infected female Anopheles mosquito. The mosquito bite introduces the parasites from the mosquito's saliva into a person's blood. The parasites travel to the liver where they mature and reproduce. Five species of Plasmodium can infect and be spread by humans. Most deaths are caused by P. falciparum because P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae generally cause a milder form of malaria.

The signs and symptoms of malaria typically begin 8–25 days following infection, but may occur later in those who have taken antimalarial medications as prevention.

Initial manifestations of the disease—common to all malaria species—are similar to flu-like symptoms, and can resemble other conditions such as sepsis, gastroenteritis, and viral diseases. The presentation may include headache, fever, shivering, joint pain, vomiting, hemolytic anaemia, jaundice, haemoglobin in the urine, retinal damage, and convulsions.

In the life cycle of Plasmodium, a female Anopheles mosquito (the definitive host) transmits a motile infective form (called the sporozoite) to a vertebrate host such as a human (the secondary host), thus acting as a transmission vector.

A sporozoite travels through the blood vessels to liver cells (hepatocytes), where it reproduces asexually (tissue schizogony), producing thousands of merozoites. These infect new red blood cells and initiate a series of asexual multiplication cycles (blood schizogony) that produce 8 to 24 new infective merozoites, at which point the cells burst and the infective cycle begins.

ANTIMALARIAL DRUG CLASSES.
Currently, available antimalarials fall into three broad categories according to their chemical structure and mode of action :

1. Aryl aminoalcohol compounds: quinine, quinidine, chloroquine, amodiaquine, mefloquine, halofantrine, lumefantrine, piperaquine, tafenoquine.

2. Antifolate compounds (“antifols”): pyrimethamine, proguanil, chlorproguanil, trimethoprim

3. Artemisinin compounds (artemisinin, dihydroartemisinin, artemether, artesunate)

Description Source: Wikipedia