Malaria

Malaria affects hundreds of thousands of Zambians every year.

What is malaria?  Malaria is a mosquito borne infectious disease.  Basically what happens is that a mosquito bites you, leaving behind a microorganism that travels to your liver to reproduce.  If infected by a mosquito, the signs and symptoms appear in 8-25 days.  Symptoms are flu-like:  fever, joint pain, headache, vomiting, etc.  (This is a very basic idea of what malaria is and the signs and symptoms).  In 2010, there were approximately 219 million documented cases of malaria and it is estimated that there were 660,000 to 1.2 million deaths related to malaria.

At the clinic in the month of May, there were 317 tested for malaria.  168 of these patients were found to be positive for malaria and given medication.  If malaria is not treated, the patient can experience complications including, but not limited to, respiratory distress, pneumonia, renal failure, convulsions, etc.  In June, there were 162 tested for malaria and 50 found positive.

How can malaria be prevented?  education, mosquito nets, medication, etc