Contents:
- Medical Video: Malaria - causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, pathology
- How can people experience malaria?
- Then how is malaria treatment done?
- What medicines are given to malaria patients?
- 1. Falciparum malaria medicine
- Vivax malaria and ovale malaria drugs
- Malaria malaria medicine
Medical Video: Malaria - causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, pathology
Malaria is a disease that is spread by mosquito bites. Not all mosquitoes can cause malaria, but only female anopheles mosquitoes have been infected with parasites called plasmodium which can infect humans. This disease is often found in tropical countries like Indonesia. If not handled properly, this disease can be life threatening. Therefore, malaria treatment must be carried out as early as possible and appropriately.
How can people experience malaria?
People who experience malaria initially get a bite of a female anopheles mosquito carrying a plasmodium parasite from the blood of a previous person who has been bitten by the same mosquito first. There are various types of plasmodium which can cause malaria, namely plasmodium vivaks, falciparum, malariae, and ovale.
After humans are bitten by the anopheles mosquito, the parasite will enter the human body and then enter the human heart to grow and develop. Parasites that have grown and developed in the human body then run in the human bloodstream. Parasites attack and destroy your red blood cells. That's why there are many plasmodium found in red blood cells of malaria patients.
Then how is malaria treatment done?
Each country has its own malaria treatment standard. However, all of them have the same goal to kill all plasmodium parasites that are in the human body. In addition to cure, malaria treatment is very important to break the chain of subsequent transmission.
Malaria treatment is done for each person, depending on the type of parasite that causes it, how severe the symptoms are caused, and the age of the patient. Age will determine the dose of medication needed. When first diagnosed as malaria positive, health workers will provide drugs that must be drunk to run out to prevent plasmodium from becoming drug resistant.
Reported in the Malaria Management Pocket Book of the Ministry of Health, if malaria sufferers do outpatient care at home, 3 days after being given antimalarial drugs the patient must check up to monitor positive changes or if there are no changes at all. The doctor will review how effective the medication has been taken.
Furthermore, on the 7th day, the 14th day, the 21st day, and the 28th day the doctor must also check all the changes that occur until you are actually declared cured. Whereas if the patient is hospitalized at the hospital, a re-examination of the efficacy of the drug will be conducted on the 7th, 14th, 21st and 28th days.
All drugs given should not be taken on an empty stomach because it can cause stomach irritation. Therefore, malaria sufferers must eat before taking medicine. In addition to treating malarial, some people also need special treatment to deal with the symptoms that accompany this disease.
What medicines are given to malaria patients?
1. Falciparum malaria medicine
Falciparum malaria (malignant malaria) is caused by a type of parasite called plasmodium falciparum.
- In Indonesia, the first line treatment for phalciparum malaria is using a combination of artesunate, amodiacine and primaquine drugs. All three aim to kill plasmodium falciparum at different stages or forms. This drug is usually given orally (by mouth). This first-line treatment will then be seen as effective or not for 3 days after taking the drug for the first time. Treatment is said to be effective if no asexual stage parasites are found and the symptoms that arise are getting better in subsequent consultations. Treatment is said to be ineffective when at the time of examination the body condition gets worse, and positive asexual plasmodium in the blood is still found.
- The second line of treatment for falciparum malaria is carried out in combination with quinine, doxycycline or tetracycline, and primaquine. These drugs are given orally for the next 7 days. Quinine will be given by IV if the malaria sufferer has experienced severe pain. If doxycycline is not available, it can be replaced with tetracycline with a frequency of administration in one day more than when using doxycycline. Both types of drugs are not allowed for children under 8 years and also pregnant women. Both of these age groups will get special treatment.
Vivax malaria and ovale malaria drugs
This type of malaria is generally categorized as mild malaria. The most common occurrence in Indonesia in the data bulletin window and health information is vivax malaria. Malaria ovale is less common.
- The first line of this type of malaria treatment is a combination of chloroquine and primaquine drugs. Just like phalciparum malaria, if after 3 days of consuming a first-line drug is not effective then this second treatment will be continued.
- Second-line treatment continued with an increase in primaquine dose.
Malaria malaria medicine
This type of malaria treatment is given with chloroquine once a day for the next 3 days and followed by a re-examination after 3 days. Chloroquine can kill plasmodium malariae in the form of asexual and sexual in the body.
If you have questions or concerns about certain malaria drugs, immediately ask the doctor who is handling you.
