Latest update November 21st, 2024 1:00 AM
The importance of Malaria Treatment and misconceptions to guard against
(From the Desk of the Vector Control Director, Dr Reyaud Rahman)
Malaria in Guyana is a serious disease which is often only taken seriously when an individual becomes
Dr. Reyaud Rahman
sick. One cannot imagine the agony, pain and utter discomfort unless this disease is contracted.
Persons at locations far in the hinterland regions are accustomed to self-medication. It is sometimes impractical for someone to travel out of a particular site for hours or days through tough and dangerous terrain to get a malaria smear and treatment when they can acquire the drugs at a shop or camp site and use same. Even though this is the practical way of thinking, it is not the correct way to deal with this problem. For this reason we will attempt to make testing easier and much more accessible to the affected population.
There are three types of malaria in Guyana, P. falciparum, P. vivax and P. malariae. The most severe and deadly type of malaria remains P. falciparum and 90 per cent of persons who do not access or use treatment will die from this type of malaria. P. vivax has very bad symptoms but will not kill you and P. malariae is a bit milder and does not threaten your life.
For this reason, it is very important to know which type of malaria you have contracted in order to be effectively treated for that particular type. There are different treatments and durations for the varied species of malaria. Added to this, if you continue to use treatment and do so when not required, you will give the malaria parasites a chance to build resistance to the medication that is being used to kill them. If resistance is built up against malaria parasites you will not be cured of malaria and you will become sicker and even die. Each of the types of malaria has to be treated by different drugs in order to target the particular parasites.
MALARIA MYTHS/ MISCONCEPTIONS
Some people believe if you contract malaria once you will not get it again; this is an absolute misconception, because you can get malaria many times over if you are bitten by an infected female Anopheles mosquito.
It is believed by some, too, that once you get malaria enough you will build up immunity to the disease and will therefore not contract it. But this is not entirely true. Perhaps someone living in a malaria endemic zone could develop a relative immunity, but this, however, does not mean they don’t get malaria; they do however get milder symptoms than someone with no exposure to malaria previously.
This relative immunity breaks down once the individual is not exposed to malaria parasites after a few years. It is also believed in some quarters that ultrasonic devices will keep mosquitoes at bay, this has been found to be totally untrue and rather can be viewed as a tactic by companies to sell their devices. In fact, these devices have little to no effect on any mosquitoes.
Also, one very common misconception is, if people stay in a malaria endemic location for a very short time they cannot get malaria, this is entirely not true, because it only takes one bite from an infected female mosquito to infect someone. It does not matter how long you are in an endemic location or a location where malaria is transmitted.
Once individuals take the necessary precautions like sleeping under a mosquito net (either a long lasting insecticidal net or treated net), use repellents, keep their surroundings clean and tidy free of any mosquito-breeding sites, they could guard themselves against the disease. However, if they feel sick they should immediately access the services of a health centre or health post in order for a diagnosis to be made and treatment to be given. It is advisable that such persons use treatment prescribed to them by a health care worker.
Once guided by a health worker, the individual is not expected to be at high risk of developing severe malaria-related complications. With treatment, an infected person’s system will fight off bad symptoms, break the disease transmission, and further ensure that the parasites do not build resistance to the malaria medication.
For this reason, persons are asked to drink tablets that are prescribed for the particular malaria type and drink all the tablets as prescribed, for the amount of days prescribed.
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