Malaria

This post is dedicated entirely to malaria. therefore, you're probably going to be bored outta ur mind.

Okay, there are four important species of Plasmodium spp. that cause malaria in our beloved country. There're more i'm sure, but i don't wanna know.

the four are : P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale and P. malariae.

oh wait, there's this P. knowlesi which come from monkeys which occasionally infect man. =)

P. falciparum is more common in Sabah, whereas in Sarawak its P vivax and in the peninsular it's both.

These protozoas are transmitted by the female Anopheline mossies. Once again, there're four prominent mossies that do the best jobs in malaysia which are :
An. maculatus (hills and mountains), An. sundaicus (brackish waters), An. balabacensis and An. leucospyrus (deep jungles of Sabah and S'wak)

Ya, remember, it's maculatus, sundaicus, balabacensis and leucospyrus. my advice is, ask them they're names and avoid.

Now when they bite you rite, the sporozoites of Plasmodium spp. in the saliva gets injected into you. In your lovely body, they perform is asexual cycle called schizogony, 1st done in ur liver (hepatic cycle) where they form schizonts. and subsequently merozoites which invade ur red blood cells (erythrocytic cycle) to form trophozoites/more merozoites (i'm confused) which will further invade other RBCs.

Occasionally, when they (the merozoites) feel like it, they form gametocytes which will infect whatever Anophline bloodsucker which lands and feeds on you.

In the bloodthirsty female, the gametocytes will fuse and go to the gut wall (we're now in the sexual cycle: sporogony) The oocyst will cross the epithelium to invade the salivary glands as sporozoites. If you're that unlucky, it'll come back to you. like a boomerang.

P vivax and P ovale can give you relapses, cos they hide in ur liver as hypnozoites and can burst to release merozoites. P malariae however can persist at low levels causing what they call as recrudesense.

P vivax and ovale are like paedophiles and like young RBC (reticulocytes) whereas P. malariae goes for older women (they seem male don't you think?). and P falciparum ain't fussy.

When ur RBCs laden with merozoites explode...it is when you get all hot and sweaty, aka fever. THis happens every 72 hrs for P. malariae and 48hrs for the rest of em.

You get the chills, rigor, fever, perspiration, delirium...shortness of breath, anemia, black urine..blablabla. if it gets to ur brain (P. falciparum) you die. P malariae likes ur kidneys more tho.

you can take some chloroquine phosphate for this. but P falciparum can be resistant to it and P vivax too. then you should prob take some Mefloquine. Primaquine to prevent relapses. Basically, just pop a "-quine" drug and you should be fine. haha...take my word for it...and die!

Hmm..i think that coffee's kicking in.