Malaria is a serious and sometimes fatal disease caused by a parasite that commonly infects a certain type of mosquito which feeds on humans. People who get malaria are typically very sick with high fever, shaking chills, and flu-like illness.
Malaria prophylaxis is the preventive treatment. Although it can be a deadly disease/illness and death from it can usually be prevented.
The World Health Organisation’s report in 2016 showed that despite the US$2.7 billion funds released, 216 million cases worldwide was recorded, whilst having 445,000 deaths.
Malaria Prevention Strategy
The best strategy is by managing the risks; this simply means preventing bites from the mosquito. Bite prevention measures include mosquito and insect repellents that can be directly applied to skin.
World Health Organisation has considered indoor residual spraying to have high levels of toxicity, and should be used with great caution.
Choosing A Drug To Prevent Malaria
According to Centre for Disease Control and Prevention, there are considerations when choosing a drug for malaria prophylaxis:
- Recommendations for drugs to prevent malaria differ by country of travel. Check out CDC country-specific tables.
- No antimalarial drug is 100% protective and must be combined with the use of personal protective measures
- For all medicines, also consider the possibility of drug-drug interactions with other medicines that the person might be taking as well as other medical contraindications, such as drug allergies.
Sources: WHO technical meeting on sleep and health and CDC’S Traveller’s Health.
Related Articles: Malaria Prophylaxis, MALARIA PROPHYLAXIS FOR CHILDREN, Everything You Need to Know about Malaria
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