Treating Malaria
Patients who cannot take in oral medication should be given continuous intravenous transfusion. Anti-malarial drugs are usually comprised of prophylactic (preventative) drugs to stop an infection from occurring if a person is bitten by an infected mosquito. Some types of drugs are:
chloroquine
atovaquone-proguanil (Malarone®)
artemether-lumefantrine (Coartem®)
mefloquine (Lariam®)
quinine
quinidine
doxycycline (used in combination with quinine)
clindamycin (used in combination with quinine)
artesunate
In addition to these drugs, primaquine is taken to prevent relapses as it is active against the dormant parasite liver forms (hypnozoites). However, primaquine should not be taken by pregnant women or people who are deficient of glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase.
However, in places where anti-malarial drugs have been used widely, strains of drug-resistant Plasmodium have been existent. For example, chloroquine resistance is widespread in parts of South America, Africa, and New Guinea. Because of this resistance, mefloquine is more often used although it is expensive and causes unpleasant side-effects.
Doctors in developed countries tend to misdiagnose malaria as influenza as they rarely see cases of malaria.
(photo: www.flickr.com)
(Cambridge International AS and A Level Biology Coursebook, 2013)
(Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2015)
