What does malaria do to your body

To allow enough time for some of the drugs to become effective and for a pharmacy to prepare any special doses of medicine especially doses for children and infants , you may need to visit your health-care provider weeks before travel. Other malaria medicines only need to be started the day before travel and so last-minute travelers can still benefit from a visit to their health-care provider before traveling. The drugs used to prevent malaria have been shown to be safe and well-tolerated for long term use.

Anyone who goes to a country where malaria transmission occurs should take precautions against contracting malaria. During the time that you have spent in the United States, you have lost any malaria immunity that you might have had while living in your native country.

Without frequent exposure to malaria parasites, your immune system has lost its ability to fight malaria. Please consult with your health-care provider or a travel clinic about precautions to take against malaria preventive drugs and protection against mosquito bites and against other diseases.

Buying medications abroad has its risks. The drugs could be of poor quality because of the way they are produced. The drugs could contain contaminants or they could be counterfeit drugs and therefore may not provide you the protection you need against malaria. In addition, some medications that are sold overseas are not used anymore in the United States or were never sold here. These drugs may not be safe or their safety has never been evaluated.

It would be best to purchase all the medications that you need before you leave the United States. As a precaution, note the name of the medication s and the name of the manufacturer s. That way, in case of accidental loss, you can replace the drug s abroad at a reliable vendor. Attempts at producing an effective malaria vaccine and vaccine clinical trials are ongoing. The malaria parasite is a complex organism with a complicated life cycle.

The parasite has the ability to evade your immune system by constantly changing its surface, so developing a vaccine against these varying surfaces is very difficult. In addition, scientists do not yet totally understand the complex immune responses that protect humans against malaria. However, many scientists all over the world are working on developing an effective vaccine. Because other methods of fighting malaria, including drugs, insecticides, and insecticide-treated bed nets, have not succeeded in eliminating the disease, the search for a vaccine is considered to be one of the most important research projects in public health.

Yes, but not all types of malaria drugs. Children of any age can get malaria and any child traveling to an area where malaria transmission occurs should use the recommended prevention measures, which often include an antimalarial drug. However, some antimalarial drugs are not suitable for children. CDC advises women who are pregnant or likely to become pregnant not to travel to areas where malaria transmission occurs, if possible. Malaria in pregnant women can be more severe than in women who are not pregnant.

Malaria can increase the risk for serious pregnancy problems, including prematurity, miscarriage, and stillbirth. If travel to a malarious area cannot be postponed, use of an effective chemoprophylaxis regimen is essential. However, no preventive drugs are completely effective. Please consider these risks and other health risks as well and discuss them with your health-care provider. Because there is no evidence that chloroquine and mefloquine are associated with congenital defects when used for preventing malaria prophylaxis , CDC does not recommend that women planning pregnancy need to wait a specific period of time after their use before becoming pregnant.

However, if women or their health-care providers wish to decrease the amount of antimalarial drug in the body before conception, the below table provides information on the half-lives of selected antimalarial drugs. There are limited data available about the safety of antimalarial drugs while breastfeeding. However, the amount of antimalarial drug transferred from the nursing mother to her infant is not thought to be harmful to the infant. Very small amounts of the antimalarial drugs chloroquine and mefloquine are excreted in the breast milk of women who are breastfeeding.

Although there is limited information about the use of doxycycline in breastfeeding women, most experts consider it unlikely to cause any harm. Malaria is predominantly found in the tropical and sub-tropical areas of Africa, South America and Asia.

If not detected and treated promptly, malaria can be fatal. However, with the right treatment, started early enough, it can be cured. It is estimated that there were million cases of malaria in and , deaths. There are six different species of malaria parasite that cause malaria in humans: Plasmodium falciparum , Plasmodium vivax , Plasmodium ovale curtisi , Plasmodium ovale wallikeri , Plasmodium malariae and the very rare Plasmodium knowlesi. Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax are the most common types of malaria parasite that infect humans.

Plasmodium falciparum causes the most serious, life-threatening infections in humans. An Anopheles mosquito taking a blood meal from a human. Related Content:.

This content does not have an Arabic version. Overview Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite. Request an Appointment at Mayo Clinic. Malaria transmission cycle Open pop-up dialog box Close. Malaria transmission cycle Malaria spreads when a mosquito becomes infected with the disease after biting an infected person, and the infected mosquito then bites a noninfected person.

Share on: Facebook Twitter. Show references AskMayoExpert. Mayo Clinic; Jameson JL, et al. In: Harrison's Principles of Internal Medicine. New York, N. Accessed Oct. Bennett JE, et al. Malaria plasmodium species. Elsevier; Accessed Dec. Some malarial parasites can enter the body but will be dormant for long periods of time. Your doctor will be able to diagnose malaria. During your appointment, your doctor will review your health history, including any recent travel to tropical climates.

A physical exam will also be performed. Your doctor will be able to determine if you have an enlarged spleen or liver. If you have symptoms of malaria, your doctor may order additional blood tests to confirm your diagnosis. Treatment for the disease is typically provided in a hospital. Your doctor will prescribe medications based on the type of parasite that you have. In some instances, the medication prescribed may not clear the infection because of parasite resistance to drugs.

If this occurs, your doctor may need to use more than one medication or change medications altogether to treat your condition. Additionally, certain types of malaria parasites, such as P. People with malaria who receive treatment typically have a good long-term outlook. If complications arise as a result of malaria, the outlook may not be as good. Cerebral malaria, which causes swelling of the blood vessels of the brain, can result in brain damage.

The long-term outlook for patients with drug-resistant parasites may also be poor. In these patients, malaria may recur. This may cause other complications. You may be prescribed medications to prevent the disease.

These medications are the same as those used to treat the disease and should be taken before, during, and after your trip.