World travelers need to know about
old diseases they may encounter during travels like malaria, cholera and
diptheria.
Malaria
Malaria causes illness and even
death to people. While most of the
malaria infections occur in sub-sahara Africa and Asia, 1500 cases are reported
every year in the US. People traveling
to tropical and sub –tropical areas of the world can check to see if their
destination poses a malaria-risk at http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/travelers/index.html
Malaria is caused by a protozoa
(tiny parasite) which is passed onto people by mosquito bites (a specific
mosquito called the Anopheles mosquito). When the infected mosquito bites a person, the tiny parasites are
injected into the person’s body, move to the person’s bloodstream and are
carried to the person’s liver where they invade and reproduce. The reproduced protozoas then burst out of
the person’s liver cells and cause symptoms such as fever, shivering, fatigue,
headache, and possibly GI (gastrointestinal symptoms) such as nausea, vomiting,
and diarrhea.
Next time we talk about prevention and treatment of malaria.
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