Prevention and treatment of Malaria

Last time I talked about malaria--an old disease that we could encounter while at home or during vacations to tropical and subtropical areas.  (While most malaria cases occur in tropical countries, 1500 new cases are reported every year in the US.)  Today we look at how to prevent catching malaria and any treatments.

Prevention of malaria involves a person becoming educated in prevention strategies such as learning whether a travel destination is at risk, learning when the mosquitos are most likely to bite (for malaria it’s dusk to dark), dressing appropriately to avoid mosquito bites, using mosquito repellants and using mosquito netting, More information about malaria and how to avoid mosquito bites and malaria can be found at http://wwwnc.cdc.gov/travel/yellowbook/2012/chapter-2-the-pre-travel-consultation/protection-against-mosquitoes-ticks-and-other-insects-and-arthropods.htm 

Treatment of malaria involves several drugs; the protozoa are becoming resistant to these drugs.

More information about malaria can be found at http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/