Malaria

Malaria is a serious infectious disease. It is one of the intermittent fevers which have a tendency to return again and again to haunt the sufferer. The word malaria comes from the Italian malaria, meaning bad air as it was once supposed to be caused by bad air. It is one of the most wide spread diseases in the world, especially in tropical and subtropical regions.

Symptoms

There are three main types of malaria, depending upon the parasite which causes it. These are vivax, falciparum and malaria, commonly called tertian fever, quarter fever and the malignant tertian malaria. The most common symptom of all types of malaria is high fever, which may come every day, on alternate days or every fourth day. The fever is accompanied by chill, headache, shivering and pain in the limbs. The temperature comes down after some time with profuse sweating. One of the main effects of malaria is anemia. Other complications of the disease are kidney failure and dysentery.

Causes

Malaria is caused by a tiny parasite called plasmodium. The parasites grow in the liver of a person for a few days and then enter the bloodstream where they invade the red blood cells. The disease is spread from a sick person to a healthy one by the female anopheles mosquito. She draws a small quantity of blood containing the parasites, when she bites a person who has malaria. These parasites then pass through several stages of development within the mosquito’s body and finally find their way to its salivary glands. There they lie in wait for an opportunity to enter the bloodstream of the next person.

The real cause of malaria, however, as in case of other infectious diseases, is wrong feeding habits and faulty style of living, resulting in the system being clogged with accumulated systemic refuse and morbid matter. It is on this soil that the malaria germs breed. The liberal use of denatured foods of today such as white sugar, white flour and products made from them, as well as tinned foods, strong tea, coffee and alcoholic beverages, lower the vitality of the system and paves the way for the development of malaria.