In the recent news, it has been stated that day by day Mumbaikars are facing the problem of water drainage and the increasing number of toll in the patients affected by Malaria. Every Rainy Season comes as challenge for the local residents.
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| The mosquito causing Malaria |
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| How your body mechanism is affected by the infection |
health.nytimes.com/ says :
Malaria is caused by a parasite that is transmitted from one human to another by the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. In humans, the parasites (called sporozoites) migrate to the liver where they mature and release another form, the merozoites. These enter the bloodstream and infect the red blood cells.
The parasites multiply inside the red blood cells, which then rupture within 48 to 72 hours, infecting more red blood cells. The first symptoms usually occur 10 days to 4 weeks after infection, though they can appear as early as 8 days or as long as a year later. Then the symptoms occur in cycles of 48 to 72 hours.
The majority of symptoms are caused by the massive release of merozoites into the bloodstream, the anemia resulting from the destruction of the red blood cells, and the problems caused by large amounts of free hemoglobin released into the circulation after red blood cells rupture.
Malaria can also be transmitted congenitally (from a mother to her unborn baby) and by blood transfusions. Malaria can be carried by mosquitoes in temperate climates, but the parasite disappears over the winter.
The disease is a major health problem in much of the tropics and subtropics. The CDC estimates that there are 300-500 million cases of malaria each year, and more than 1 million people die. It presents a major disease hazard for travelers to warm climates.
In some areas of the world, mosquitoes that carry malaria have developed resistance to insecticides, while the parasites have developed resistance to antibiotics. This has led to difficulty in controlling both the rate of infection and spread of this disease.
Falciparum malaria, one of four different types of malaria, affects a greater proportion of the red blood cells than the other types and is much more serious. It can be fatal within a few hours of the first symptoms.
Record malaria outbreak in Mumbai
August 20, 2010 - 10:04PM (Attribution By : news.smh.com.au)
AFP
India has drafted in health workers from Medecins Sans Frontieres to help tackle what they said on Friday was a record number of malaria cases in the country's financial capital, Mumbai.
The organisation said it was responding to a request from the local health ministry "to reinforce the supply of treatment", including for the most deadly form of the disease, which has struck 10 to 15 per cent of victims.
MSF teams working on an HIV treatment scheme in Mumbai are now providing 100,000 diagnostic kits and 3700 treatment kits to 64 health centres. They will also train health workers to identify and treat the disease.
Tiago Dal Molin, the group's project co-ordinator in Mumbai, said in a statement: "It is crucial that health staff can give a correct diagnosis so that patients can be treated appropriately.
"The diagnostic tests that we provide are reliable, easy to use and require just one drop of blood to give results."
Outbreaks of malaria and water-borne diseases are common in some areas of overcrowded Mumbai, which is home to an estimated 18 million people.
The first six months of this year saw more than 14,700 cases of malaria - nearly as many as for the whole of 2009 - while a sharp rise in patients since the start of the monsoon rains in July has left hospitals struggling to cope.
Mumbai's municipal authorities have expressed concern that the city's many construction sites have become a haven for mosquitoes that spread the disease because they breed around stagnant water.
They suggested that 200,000 construction workers, many of them migrants who sleep on site, are at risk of infection.
3 comments:
great informative post. i am aware of 4-5 people known to me who have caught it.
Oh sad ... hope they get well soon !
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