Malaria : Treatment and Prevention Essay -- Biology Medical Biomedical

Malaria: Treatment and Prevention Malaria treatment is different for different patients. For severe cases, patients get blood transfusions. Others get various drugs to help get rid of the parasite. Many of these drugs are also used for prevention. Mosquito eradication and nets are also ways of preventing malaria. Unfortunately, there are many difficulties with creating malaria vaccines, so they are currently still under development. Every 30 seconds, at least one person dies of malaria. About 350-500 million people are infected with malaria each year, and about 1.3-3 million of these result in death. In the next 20 years, the death rate is expected to double (â€Å"Malaria,† 2006). Of course, we need to try to prevent this from happening. There are many ways of treating and preventing malaria. Malaria cases in South Africa, 1971-2003 (â€Å"Malaria,† 1996) Treatment for each malaria patient depends on the specific parasite causing the infection, the severity of the infection, the health condition of the patient, and medication resistance of the parasite. If the parasite has infected more than 5% of blood cells, the patient experiences severe confusion, or lung or complications, exchange blood transfusion is sometimes used to treat the malaria. This procedure is when donor blood is injected while patient blood is being withdrawn. This is the quickest way to remove the parasite from the blood. The drug Chloroquine was used for many years to treat malaria, but the most dangerous type of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, developed resistance to this drug, making it more or less useless. There are at least ten other anti-malarial drugs used to treat malaria today. Extracts of the plant Artemisia annua are very effective, but there is not eno... ... List of References (1996, October). Department of Health. Retrieved July 28, 2006, from Malaria Web site: http://www.doh.gov.za/issues/malaria.html (2004, May 5). Malaria. Retrieved July 17, 2006, from Laboratory Identification of Parasites of Public Health Concern Web site: http://www.dpd.cdc.gov/dpdx/HTML/Malaria.htm (2005, June 17). Malaria. Retrieved July 26, 2006, from WebMD Web site: http://www.webmd.com/hw/lab_tests/hw119259.asp Flynn, E., Shamos, S., & Vogel, L. Stanford University. Retrieved July 23, 2006, from Malaria Web site: http://www.stanford.edu/class/humbio103/ParaSites2003/Malaria/malariahp.htm Malaria. (2006). In Wikipedia [Web]. Retrieved July 14, 2006, from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaria Malaria & Malaria Vaccines. Retrieved July 24, 2006, from Malaria Vaccine Initiative Web site: http://www.malariavaccine.org/malaria-and-vaccines.htm