Malaria Flashcards
What is Malaria?
infection with Protozoan Plasmodium
Where is Malaria endemic?
in tropics – affects 250 million people worldwide yearly
What is the incubation period of malaria like?
usually 1-2 weeks but up to a year
How is Malaria transmitted?
Female Anopheles mosquito
What are the different plasmodium species?
- P.Falciparum (80% cases worldwide, highest mortalirt)
- P.vivax
- P.ovale
- P.malariae
When should you suspect Malaria?
Fever+recent travel + normocytic anaemia
What is the general patho of Malaria?
- Plasmodium spp. are transmitted by the bite of the female Anopheles mosquito
- protozoa infect red blood cells (RBCs) and grow intracellularly
What is injected into the bloodstream?
injection of sporozoites into the bloodstream by the bite of the female Anopheles
mosquito
What can other specieis of plasmodium do?
- invasion and replication in hepatocytes (exoerythrocytic schizogeny)
- P. vivax and P. ovale
- may develop into dormant hypnozoites and cause relapse within months or even years.
What happens to the parasites when they reinvade the blood?
called merozites
What happens inside the RBC?
parasites develop from ring forms (trophozoites) to multinucleated schizonts (erythrocytic
schizogeny)
What happens to the RBC?
RBCs rupture and release merozoites, which may reinfect new RBCs. Some differentiate
into male and female gametocytes
What happens to the gameocytes?
taken up by the Anopheles mosquitoes, develop into sporozoites in their
gut and migrate to the salivary gland of the mosquito to be transmitted in their bite.
Which populations have inate immunity to malaria?
- sickle cell trait
- G6PD deficiency
- pyruvate kinase deficiency
- thalassaemias
Why are trophozites important?
can be identified under a microscope to aid diagnosis of malaria
Why can there be jaundice in malaria?
- intravascular hemolysis
- disseminated intravascular coagulation
- rarely, ‘malarial hepatitis’. (I.e. jaundice not rly due to liver involvement, more to do with RBC destruction etc.)