Contents:
- Medical Video: Malaria - causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, pathology
- How is malaria transmitted?
- Various symptoms of malaria in children
Medical Video: Malaria - causes, symptoms, diagnosis, treatment, pathology
Until now, malaria is still one of the most worrying infectious diseases in Indonesia. Profiting from the CNN Indonesia, the 2017 Ministry of Health report states that out of a total of 262 million Indonesians, as many as 4.9 million or two percent live in highly vulnerable areas of malaria, such as Papua, West Papua, East Nusa Tenggara (NTT), and parts of Kalimantan. During 2017 there were 261,617 cases of malaria which killed at least 100 people in Indonesia.
Although the incidence of malaria is not as large as dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), the risk cannot be underestimated. Malaria can be life threatening, especially in children. Therefore each parent must be aware of the symptoms of malaria as early as possible.
How is malaria transmitted?
Malaria is an infection caused by the Plasmodium parasite. This parasite is transmitted by the bite of an infected Anopheles female mosquito. When you are bitten by a female Anopheles mosquito, the parasite will enter the bloodstream and multiply in the liver (liver).
If the mosquito sucks blood from someone who has been infected first, then this parasite will automatically enter the mosquito. When the mosquito bites a healthy human, the human will contract the parasite.
However, malaria can also be transmitted through blood transfusions and from mother to fetus or what is called congenital malaria. This infection is very common in tropical regions.
Various symptoms of malaria in children
Symptoms of malaria in children usually appear depending on the type of parasite that is transmitted. You need to be vigilant if your baby shows various symptoms such as:
- Appetite decreases dramatically.
- Headache.
- Nausea.
- Easy to fuss.
- Pain and pain throughout the body, especially the back and abdomen.
- Enlarged spleen.
- Seizures or loss of consciousness when malaria has contracted the brain.
- Children have difficulty sleeping.
- Fever, can be continuous or appear and disappear alternately.
- Fever can continue to increase within 1 to 2 days and can reach 40.6 degrees Celsius.
- The body shivers but sweats.
- Breath rate is faster than normal.
In some cases even children can experience hypothermia, not fever. That is, children have a much lower body temperature than usual. Generally, these symptoms occur in children under the age of five who contract malaria.
Malaria is a serious disease and is proven to be fatal, especially for infants and toddlers. Therefore, immediately consult a doctor when you see various symptoms of malaria in children. Especially if you are in an area that is endemic to malaria.
