What are the symptoms of malaria

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by Plasmodium parasites infecting the human body. It is very common in Africa and other regions, and the mortality rate of this disease is very high. The symptoms of malaria are very obvious and are mainly divided into four typical types of human malaria. The symptoms of malaria also vary in different periods.

1. Prodromal stage:

Patients experience fatigue, headache, malaise, anorexia, chills and low fever. This stage is equivalent to the malarial parasites (schizonts) in the liver cells developing into mature merozoites and releasing them into the bloodstream. However, because the density of protozoa in the peripheral blood is too low, microscopic examinations are mostly negative.

2. Chills or chills:

It lasts for several minutes to 1 hour, often accompanied by headache, nausea and vomiting. At this time, the body temperature is usually over 38°C. When the malarial parasites are examined under a microscope, most of them are schizonts and ring bodies.

3. Fever period:

It usually lasts for 3 to 4 hours, the headache worsens, and the body temperature may exceed 40°C. Patients with multiple relapses may only have slight chills and low fever from time to time, or dizziness, headache, muscle and joint pain, and trigeminal neuralgia without obvious high fever. The protozoa seen during the fever period are mainly small trophozoites.

4. Sweating period:

You may sweat slightly or even profusely. During this period, the body temperature quickly returns to normal and the above symptoms gradually disappear.

5. Intermission period :

It refers to the interval between two attacks, the length of which depends on the species of worms and immunity. As for the typical interval period, the cases of malignant malaria are very irregular, ranging from a few hours to 24 to 48 hours. The intervals for vivax malaria and ovale malaria are about 48 hours, and for quartan malaria is 72 hours. Except for malignant malaria, the protozoa seen by microscopy are mainly large trophozoites.

6. Latent period and relapse:

There are also latent periods and relapses for Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium ovale; there are only relapses and no recurrences for Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium malariae. The time between the first onset and relapse, as well as the interval between the two relapses, is called the first and second latent periods, respectively. Similar conditions seen after not being treated with sufficient amounts of highly effective intravascular schizonticides are collectively called relapses.