Treatment of Malaria
This page provides information on the treatment of Malaria and how it is that Malaria is diagnosed. Although there are Malaria treatments that can cure the disease, the best form of treatment is prevention. Please see our Malaria Prevention page for further details.
By consulting your doctor or a medical professional in the country you are in you can be diagnosed as having Malaria by undergoing a very simple test. A drop of your blood is placed onto a test paper which is then examined under a microscope. This quick examination will be able to tell whether you have Malaria and which strain it is that you have.
As we have previously stressed as soon as the symptoms of Malaria appear you should seek help and this should be within 24 hours. As soon as you are diagnosed then getting the required Malaria treatments can begin. Basic forms of Malaria can be treated without the need to spend time in hospital however strains deemed more severe will mean you will be admitted to hospital for a period of time to be treated and observed. If you took longer than you ought to have to receive a diagnosis and treatment of Malaria then the chances are you will need to be hospitalised anyway because the disease will have developed and you will be showing severe symptoms of Malaria.
Treatment of Malaria comes in the form of antimalarial drugs and depends upon the strain and severity of the Malaria that has been contracted.
Factors that can effect the required malaria treatment
There are certain factors that need to be taken into consideration before malaria treatment can begin, following a positive diagnosis of the patient of course, these are as follows:
- The strain of Malaria that has been contracted
- Allergies to any other drugs and treatments that the patient experiences
- The geographical location that the disease was contracted
- Clinical status of the patient
- Any other illnesses that the patient is suffering from
- Whether or not the patient is pregnant
Treatment of Malaria is usually given through a continuous intravenous infusion for most severe cases but it is possible to have the treatment by way of suppository. Otherwise it is case of takin prescribed drugs most commonly in the way of Quinine Sulphat tablets. The average adult will be told to take 600mg every 12 hours.
Prognosis following malaria treatment
The good news for those that are able to seek medical help and receive malaria treatment is that they should make a full and comprehensive recovery. If the type of malaria that the patient is suffering from is not complicated then a course of drugs that they can take away will clear it up, for more advance and severe types of malaria the treatment will need to be more intense and the patient will need to be observed for a period of time by a doctor. Never the less whether you are at home or abroad, if you think that you are suffering from the disease and you get help by way of a diagnosis and malaria teatment fast there should be very little to worry about. The severity of the infection is determined by which malaria parasite that you have been infected with. The most serious form of malaria parasite is plasmodium vevax with less serious strains of the disease being brought on my plasmodium malariae and plasmodium ovale, without the help of a doctor you have no way of knowing which one of these has infected you of course.
What to do if you think you need malaria treatment
As you cannot diagnose and then subsequently apply malaria treatment yourself there is little use in listing the types of drugs that are required on this page, especially as they will need to be administered by a doctor or at a hospital. The most sensible and effective measure that you can take when experiencing the symptoms of malaria is seeking medical advice straight away, speak to a doctor or go to the hospital and do not delay because the symptoms can come on very quickly. The sooner that you seek malaria treatment the sooner you can receive an accurate diagnosis and the necessary drugs to make you better. People in the third world run our of time because they are not able to receive malaria treatment when they need it, there is no excuse for you not to seek help if you have access to it while you are on your travels or after you have returned home.
Thank you for reading our page on malaria treatment, as we have mentioned the most effective way to treat malaria is to take all of the necessary precautions to ensure that you are exposed to it as little as possible so please take the time to check out our malaria prevention and malaria prophylaxis pages where there is information that could well save your life if you are somebody that is planning to travel to one of the countries in the world deemed as a malaria hotspot.
There is much more to our site than just information on the treatment for malaria so please check out our pages on malaria symptoms and also learn a bit more about what happens to people when the malaria disease is contracted on our malaria life cycle page.
