MALARIA AND YELLOW FEVER
Malaria and yellow fever are common infectious diseases because they attack a lot of people around the world.
Malaria is a parasitic disease which is called Plasmodium parasite (1). It is transmitted to humans through the bite of infected mosquitoes (2). It usually affects children under five years of age and travelers who visit endemic areas of this illness like Africa, Asia and South and Central America.(1,3,4) It first appeared in2700BC in China(5).
Yellow fever is an acute viral infectious disease. This means that it is caused by a virus from the Flaviviridae group that is transferred to the victim by the bite of infected mosquitoes (6). It can attack anybody but old persons are the most at danger of getting yellow fever (7). It is famous in Africa and South America (8). It was discovered in the 17th century in Yucatan peninsula in Africa but it passed to America by ships during trade (6).
In this report, I will compare and contrast the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of these two diseases.
Malaria and yellow fever have similar symptoms such as high temperature, head pain, nausea, chills, muscle pain, vomiting, shivers, jaundice, weakness, loss of kidney function, bleeding disorders and brain problems for example trance, spasm and death. (1,3,6,7,9) Yellow fever has different signs that help the doctors to diagnose the sickness like abdominal ache, blood in the vomit and stool, deficiency of palate, malaise, the complexion bruise easily and flushed face, eyes and tongue.(6,9) In contrast the distinguishing symptoms of malaria are perspiration, dry skin, diarrhea, cough and enlarging of the eyes.(1,3)
Both malaria and yellow fever are diagnosed by taking a travel history of the patient and different blood tests (1, 6). Each one of these diseases have specific tests for example the doctor use a Giemsa blood smear, rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) and polymerase chain reaction tests (PCR) to determine malaria disease whereas they use other tests to distinguish yellow fever like a low white blood cell count (leukopenia), a low platelet count (thrombocytopenia), liver function tests, Urine tests and an electrocardiogram (ECG)is used to recognize heart disorders. (3, 6)
Oral drugs and intravenous medicines are prescribed to treat malaria and yellow fever. (1, 7, 9) However, Aspirin and nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) should not be given because they may rise the hazard of bleeding problems (6). In addition malaria is cured by other medications for instance chloroquine, sulfadoxine- pyrimethamine (Fansidar), mefloquine (Lariam), atovaquone-proguanil (Malarone) ,quinine and doxycycline(2). On the other hand, yellow fever is treated by dialysis for loss of kidney function, transfusion of blood to manage bleeding disorders, antibiotics to reduce the secondary bacterial infections and remedies to prevent blood pressure from falling (6).
This report has compared and contrasted the symptoms, diagnosis and treatment of malaria and yellow fever because they kill a lot of people around the world. It is very important to know the similarities and differences between these diseases because that helps the physicians to determine the illness and prescribe the effective medications to treat these two diseases.
People should take a vaccine before they travel to the areas where yellow fever or malaria are common. Also people, who live in endemic regions, should avoid mosquito bites by wearing protective clothes.
References:
1) Medicine net, Malaria. On line. http://www.medicinenet.com/malaria/article.htm
(accessed 29 November 2010).
2) Buzzle, Malaria. On line. http: //www.buzzle.com/articles/malaria-disease-syptoms-cause-treatment.html (accessed 2 December 2010).
3) Malaria. Infectious Disease Sourcebook. 1st ed: United States, 2004:p234,241,242
4) Medline Plus, Malaria. On line. http://www.nlm.nil.gov/medlineplus/malaria/html (accessed 13 November 2010).
6) Medicine Net, Yellow fever. On line. http://medicinenet.com/yellow fever.htm (accessed 2 December 2010).
7) Medicine Plus, Yellow fever. On line. http://nlm.nil.gov/medicineplus/ency/article/001365.htm (accessed 13 November 2010).
8) World Health Organization. Vaccination Certificate Requirements and Health Advice for International Travel. Geneva; 1988
9) Yellow fever. Infectious Disease Sourcebook. 1st ed: United States, 2004:
p351-354
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