Malaria is basically a tropical ailment. Several times you might have just treated malaria and just the moment you think you’re finally free, boom! It comes back.
Fever, chills, and that annoying joint ache show up again.
But why does malaria keep coming despite the treatments ?
Experts point to three ‘Rs’ of reoccurrence of malaria after a prior treatment.
Re-infection:
This occurs when you have another fresh mosquito bite after your last treatment.
Imagine you’ve just recovered from malaria and are looking forward to getting back to your routine.
Suddenly, another mosquito bite reintroduces the sporozoites from its gut into your system.
The sporozoites pass through all the phases, from Schizonts to Merozoites and maybe to Gametocytes, if you don’t act fast.
Once the Merozoites form in the red blood cells, you’ll start to observe symptoms.
Also note that when the Sporozoites from a mosquito’s saliva turn into Schizonts in the liver, they usually don’t show symptoms.
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So, at this point you’re already infected but no symptoms yet.
It takes about 5-15 days for this asymptomatic phase to move into the symptomatic phase.
Relapse:
This happens when parasites that lay low in the liver migrate later into the red blood cells to cause symptoms.
After the sporozoites enter the liver cells, they multiply and develop into tissue Schizonts that migrate into the red blood cells to cause symptoms.
We also have some parasites that don’t join others in the red blood cells but instead stay back in the liver as Hypnozoites.
When they decide it’s time, they come out to invade the red blood cells and cause a fresh infection after you’ve treated the last one.
For an analogy, hypnozoites are like the big boys that come while everyone is seated.
They are usually formed by Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium ovale.
Many drugs don’t tackle them alone ; they can only be eliminated with a kind of malaria treatment called radical therapy.
Recrudescence:
This type of reoccurrence is often due to incomplete or improper treatment. It could be because:
. You didn’t finish your doses.
. You were under diagnosed.
. Your result was read incorrectly, leading you to take treatment for a less severe malaria.
. The quality of your antimalarial medicine was poor.
The consequence of these errors is that some parasites in the blood survive and reinitiate symptoms.
You might hear people say, “I just finished my drugs, but it feels like I didn’t take anything.” This is why.
How To Prevent Malaria:
. Avoid unhygienic practices that can breed mosquitoes, e.g. keeping filled trash cans and stagnant water around your homes.
. Apply mosquito repellent to skin or clothing.
. Sleep under treated mosquito nets.
. Wear protective clothing.
. Maintain a cool body temperature.
. Have a shower when necessary to avoid body odour as this odour attracts mosquitoes
. See a doctor for malaria prophylactic medications when you visit high-risk areas.
. If you have malaria symptoms, seek medical attention and get treated.
