Malaria Surveillance Plan Report (PDF)

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 type
of mosquitoes. There are four major species of the Plasmodium parasite that cause malaria of
various degrees of complexity in humans, namely Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium
vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium malariae; although, scientists tend to name some
other species as well (Mali, par. 1). Plasmodium falciparum and Plasmodium vivax are the
most widely spread and cause the majority of epidemic outbreaks, while Plasmodium
falciparum is also the most dangerous one, causing fatal termination of the disease.
Generally, malaria is characterized by high fever, chills, headache, increased
sweating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea and a wide range of other symptoms. Some of the
parasite species cause the most severe and very often fatal cases. This kind of infectious
disease is typical for tropical and subtropical regions; however, it may be easily transferred to
other areas by travellers who had not been vaccinated against it. It can be manifested in
weeks after leaving the endemic region and be unnoticed at first which does not make it less
dangerous. For this reason all the cases should be accurately observed and recorded to
provide the detailed description of the variety of cases for the posterior epidemic outbreaks.