Malaria Surveillance Plan Report

Joseph Katie

Mar 2013 · GRIN Verlag

About this ebook

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2012 in the subject Health Science, grade: A, Oxford University, language: English, abstract: Malaria is a serious disease, which can be fatal, caused by infection of a certain type of mosquitoes. There are four major species of the Plasmodium parasite that cause malaria of various degrees of complexity in humans, namely Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae; although, scientists tend to name some other species as well (Mali, par. 1). Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax are the most widely spread and cause the majority of epidemic outbreaks, while Plasmodium falciparum is also the most dangerous one, causing fatal termination of the disease. Generally, malaria is characterized by high fever, chills, headache, increased sweating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and a wide range of other symptoms. Some of the parasite species cause the most severe and very often fatal cases. This kind of infectious disease is typical for tropical and subtropical regions; however, it may be easily transferred to other areas by travellers who had not been vaccinated against it. It can be manifested in weeks after leaving the endemic region and be unnoticed at first which does not make it less dangerous. For this reason all the cases should be accurately observed and recorded to provide the detailed description of the variety of cases for the posterior epidemic outbreaks.