Malaria prevention has always been a very important subject that has attracted the attention of all stakeholders of healthcare delivery because of its detrimental statistics. Social nongovernmental Organizations like the AGAMAL have played a very important role in malaria elimination so far in Obuasi and other communities by organizing free domestic praying for every home in the captured communities.
Their effort has attracted Withope Foundation to the table to also spice it up with a technical explanation of malaria and other avenues to stay prevented from it, signs and symptoms are also explained to people to stay on top of their health and notice any abnormality.
This led us to explain in detail the mechanism of the plasmodium parasite and its pathophysiology in the human system on the 16th of June 2023 at shaft FM 98.1. It was very educative and interactive and we believe the impact will be very significant on the people of Obuasi.
Malaria is a disease of the red blood cell and the liver. These are the 2 major hosts of the plasmodium parasite in the human body. female mosquitoes feed on blood from animals such as men. The amount of blood they suck from us is not significant so can be considered not problematic for men but the awful thing in this feeding cycle is that they don’t just suck our blood but leave in a deadly parasite called the plasmodium parasite. After the plasmodium enters the blood, it goes straight to the liver and spends about 14 days duplicating as tiny male and female merozoite. But these male and female eggs cant fuse in the human body to form another active plasmodium except in the guts of a female mosquito. So the eggs keep on destroying RBC just to find space to create their habitat.
These male and female merozoites fuse to form another parasite but the fusion doesn’t happen in humans. when a mosquito bites an unready infected person. It then pulls blood for itself which is filled with tiny male and female eggs (merozoite). When these tiny eggs get to the gut of the female mosquito, they then fuse to form a zygote the zygote grows to form a sporozoite (developed plasmodium) and swims to the salivary gland of the mosquito and subsequently is injected into another man after a bite of the Anopheles mosquito.
So the plasmodium parasite needs both female mosquitoes and warm-blooded animals like humans to reproduce. Humans facilitate its duplication to tiny male and female eggs whiles mosquitoes extract these eggs and fuse them to zygotes in their gut to produce fresh babies of the plasmodium parasite called sporozoite.
It takes two weeks before you feel the signs and symptoms of the infection, that is after the plasmodium has busted out of the liver and entered the Red Blood Cells. The symptoms of malaria can be broken down into two categories, that is the uncomplicated stage and the severe stage.
The uncomplicated stage is the stage where the parasite has only attacked the RBC but have not affect neighboring organs yet. The signs are;
A. fever,
B. chills,
C. sweeting
These 3 signs are also called paroxysm, which is a flu-like symptoms and evolves as a result of our immune response
D. mild jaundice. ( because the RBC is been broken by the parasite and the protein bilirubin in them
leaks to the bloodstream and lies under our skin to cause a yellow colorization called jaundice).
These symptoms are periodic. They comes and goes in the spaces of about 30 hours. This is because whenever the Plasmodium is pushed from the liver to the RBC, it leads to these symptoms and the Plasmodium leaves the liver almost every 30 hours which makes the symptom periodic.
The severe symptoms are when the parasite spends enough time in the system. The parasite then takes over the entire body and affects the functions of related organs. The symptoms are;
A.Anaemia
B.Brain problem
C.Lungs problems
D.Breathing problems
This stage requires urgent treatment and usually intravenous therapy to combat the parasites directly in the RBC.
Malaria is very deadly and we must commend AGAMAL for their patriotic effort against it. Withope Foundation loves to see patriotic organizations that are doing their best to promote health and will always add up to have the best possible impact on our dear nation.
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Contact – +233596859293
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ACC NUMBER – 1400005892114
ACC NAME – Wihope Foundation LBG
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ACC NAME – Withope Foundation LBG