Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite.
Malaria symptoms include fever and flu-like illness, including shaking chills, headache, muscle aches, and tiredness. Nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea may also occur. Malaria may cause anemia and jaundice (yellow coloring of the skin and eyes) because of the loss of red blood cells. Infection with one type of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, if not promptly treated, may cause kidney failure, seizures, mental confusion, coma, and death.
Each year 350 to 500 million cases of malaria occur world-wide, and over one million people die, most of them young children.
The Anopheles Malaria Mosquito.
Where malaria disease is found depends mainly on climatic factors such as temperature, humidity, and rainfall. The main areas where malaria disease is found are; Africa, Madagascar, India and South America. Malaria is transmitted in tropical and subtropical areas, where the host mosquito, of the genus Anopheles, is able to survive and multiply. There are approximately 430 Anopheles mosquito species, only 30 to 40 of which transmit the malaria parasite.
Only in areas where the malaria parasites can complete its growth cycle in the mosquitoes can humans be infected. There are four species of malaria parasite that can infect humans they are; Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae. The time required for development of the parasite in the mosquito (the extrinsic incubation period) ranges from 10 to 21 days, depending on the parasite species and the temperature.
Malaria Control In the United States.
In the United States during the 19th century, and early 20th century, malaria was wide spread in the Southeastern Sates. In 1947 a National Malaria Eradication Program was undertaken by 13 States. The program consisted primarily of DDT application to the interior surfaces of rural homes or entire premises. By the end of 1949 over 4,650,000 houses had been sprayed. This eradication program worked, by 1952, the US was declared free of malaria. Anyone in the US who is now diagnosed with malaria has usually caught the disease while abroad.
Malaria in Africa -- the country of Eritrea.
It seems that the country of Eritrea is having some success in reducing malaria deaths by eradicating the Anopheles mosquito species. Since 2003 the government has been distributing pesticide treated mosquito nets and making sure that these nets are retreated every three months. Mosquito friendly habitats have been eradicated - changed so that the mosquito can no longer reproduce. The setting up of local medical clinics where people can be treated for malaria quickly has also been a great help. The malaria mortality rate has been reduced by 85 percent.
Remember that where-ever in the world the malaria mosquito species can survive and multiply it is possible to have an outbreak of malaria.
Pharmaceutical Drugs.
Pharmaceutical drugs are the usual method to treat cases of malaria. Following are some of the anti-malarial drugs used in the treatment of uncomplicated malaria.
* Amodiaquine,
* Clindamycin,
* Halofantrine,
* Lumefantrine plus Artemether (Coartem),
* Mefloquine plus Artesunate,
* Sulfadoxine Pyrimethamine plus Artesunate,
* Sulfadoxine pyrimethamine,
* Quinine,
* Tetracycline,
All pharmaceutical drugs, when taken, have the possibility of causing adverse side effects. Here are the possible unwanted side effects of Tetracycline.
The side effects associated with Tetracycline are; blurred vision, diarrhea, dizziness, genital or anal sores, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, anemia, blood disorders, sore tongue, inflammation of the small and large intestines, noises in ears, fluid retention, hives, painful and difficult to swallow food, feeling dizzy, skin rash and increased sensitivity to bright lights.
Quinine.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration, in 2006, banned the use of all but one brand of Quinine (Qualaquin) because of adverse side effects. Some of the usual side effects of taking Quinine are; diarrhea, chest pain, a pounding heart, blistered skin, cessation of urination, loss of hearing, blurred vision, yellow skin, stomach upset, nausea, vomiting, general weakness, mental confusion and purple spots under the skin.
More serious quinine side effects are; cardiac arrhythmias, thrombocytopenia (a decrease in blood platelets that can cause hemorrhage or clotting problems), severe hypersensitivity reactions and death. From 1969 to 2006 there were 93 reports, made to the FDA, of people dying from taking quinine.
Following are some pharmaceutical drugs used to prevent malaria.
* Atovaquone proguanil,
* Chloroquine,
* Doxycycline,
* Mefloquine,
* Primaquine,
Here is a list of the possible adverse side effects of the drug Chloroquine.
Diarrhea, blurred vision, sore throat, loss of hearing, hives, swollen tongue, swollen lips, noises in the ears, itching, breathing difficulties, seizures, averse to sunlight, bruising, bleeding with no obvious reason, loss of hair, unusual emotional behaviour, loss of appetite, headache, nausea, vomiting and cramps in stomach.
The above three examples show that whatever pharmaceutical drug you take for malaria you should be aware that you may suffer from some adverse side effects.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) state on their website: "In general, most drugs used to prevent and treat malaria have been shown to be well tolerated for at least one year or more". - In other words most of the drugs taken by most of the people will not cause side effects for up to one year. After one year you can expect to suffer some unwanted side effects. - Which probably explains why people who live in areas where malaria disease is rife do not usually take the preventative malaria medicines, as side effects always develop over time. Those few who do take the preventative drugs often need hospitalisation.
Most people, who live in high infestation areas, depend upon being cured by the standard malaria medicines after they contract malaria.
Drug Resistance.
The use of anti-malarial drugs over time has another negative effect - drug resistance. Two of the four parasite species that have developed some resistance to some of the above drugs are Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax. So if you are infected with either of these two species the drugs you are taking may not be effective in curing your malaria unless they have been tested in a laboratory and found to be effective in treating these two species.
Yeast Extract.
There is a yeast extract, a by-product of the beer brewing process, that if eaten on a daily basis is reported, by those who eat it, to reduce the number of mosquitoes bites. The theory is that the yeast extract changes your body odour so that you are less attractive to the mosquitoes. Definitely worth trying and you get the bonus of getting extra B vitamins.
The yeast extract I am referring to is Marmite. There are other yeast extracts such as Vegemite from Australia and Cenovis made in Switzerland, plus many copycats. The people I know start to eat Marmite two weeks before their journey when going to Africa. I do not know if the other yeast extracts will have the same effect.
A Simple Safe Malaria Treatment.
While prospecting for gold in the jungles of Guyana, South America in 1997, Jim Humble accidentally discovered a simple cure for malaria. Two members of the prospecting group went down with malaria disease and there was no malaria medicine available. Help was six days away. The only thing they had was a substance called stabilized oxygen that Jim used to sterilise water. Jim reckoned that as stabilized oxygen kills pathogens in water it seemed logical to assume that it might kill the malaria parasite.
The two men lay in their hammocks shivering from the chills while at the same time they were running high fevers. Their symptoms of malaria included headaches, aching muscles and joints, nausea, diarrhea, and vomiting.
They felt so bad that when Jim asked them if they were willing to try his - health drink from America - they agreed. Jim gave each man a healthy dose of stabilized oxygen in some water. In one hour the shivering had stopped and the men looked better. Four hours later all the malaria symptoms had gone and they got out from their hammocks and ate a meal.
Throughout his travels in the jungle he treated other people with the stabilized oxygen with some success. Overall the success rate was seven out of ten people were helped.
Thus started Jim's journey to try and discover why the stabilized oxygen only worked for some of the time and if he could increase the success rate.
For six years from 2001 to 2006 Jim carried out thousands of tests both on himself and other volunteers. In all 75,000 people from five different countries agreed to try Jim's malaria treatment. Slowly with much trial and error the success rate improved until the year 2006 when Jim considered that his malaria treatment was fully tested and ready to be used by all malaria sufferers.
Jim has written an eBook called "The Miracle Mineral Solution of the 21st Century" it is in two parts. The first part can be downloaded for free and there is a small charge for part two. If you have malaria part one of the eBook, chapters eight and nine, will give you all the information you need to treat yourself using Jim's treatment protocol.
No comments:
Post a Comment