Malaria Surveillance Plan Report

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2012 in the subject Nursing Science, Nutrition, Sport, Health, grade: A, Oxford University, language: English, abstract: Malaria is a serious disease, which can be fatal, caused by infection of a certain typeof mosquitoes. There are four major species of the Plasmodium parasite that cause malaria ofvarious degrees of complexity in humans, namely Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodiumvivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae; although, scientists tend to name someother species as well (Mali, par. 1). Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax are themost widely spread and cause the majority of epidemic outbreaks, while Plasmodiumfalciparum is also the most dangerous one, causing fatal termination of the disease.Generally, malaria is characterized by high fever, chills, headache, increasedsweating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and a wide range of other symptoms. Some of theparasite species cause the most severe and very often fatal cases. This kind of infectiousdisease is typical for tropical and subtropical regions; however, it may be easily transferred toother areas by travellers who had not been vaccinated against it. It can be manifested inweeks after leaving the endemic region and be unnoticed at first which does not make it lessdangerous. For this reason all the cases should be accurately observed and recorded toprovide the detailed description of the variety of cases for the posterior epidemic outbreaks.