Good for the elderly
Malaria is particularly dangerous for pregnant women since pregnancy weakens a woman’s antibody to the disease, making her more susceptible to infection and raising the risk of sickness, severe anaemia, and even death.
Pregnant women and first-time moms are more at risk. The risk of anemia and miscarriage is raised in pregnant women who have malaria, and the risk of stillbirth, preterm, intrauterine growth retardation, and low birth weight is increased in their newborns.
As a result of the increased susceptibility of pregnant women to Plasmodium falciparum malaria, the risk of sickness and mortality for both the mother and her fetus increases significantly. Women of all ages and parities are at risk for severe syndromes such as cerebral malaria in low transmission areas, and maternal and fetal mortality are on the rise.
MALARIA during pregnancy continues to be an important public health concern, posing significant hazards to the woman as well as her fetus and newborn child. Prevalence of malaria among pregnant women in a semi-urban area in north-western Nigeria, as well as potential risk factors for malaria infection, were the objectives of this study.
This study found that maternal age was connected with malaria prevalence, indicating that pregnant women of younger maternal age are at the greatest risk of malaria infection, as well as having the largest parasite densities, as discovered by the research team.
Traveling to a malaria-endemic area while pregnant is dangerous, and a pregnant woman should take all required precautions to avoid contracting malaria. The patient’s and her family members’ identities have been modified to protect their privacy.
When women are pregnant for the first or second time, they are particularly vulnerable to malaria because they lack adequate immunity to the parasite’s variant surface proteins, which are expressed on the surface of infected red blood cells, allowing the infected cells to sequester in the placenta, a protected environment in which the parasite can thrive.
Because of the loss of red blood cells caused by malaria, anemia and jaundice (yellow coloration of the skin and eyes) may be experienced. If the infection is not treated immediately, it can progress to a severe stage and result in renal failure, convulsions, mental disorientation, coma, and death.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) now recommends the antimalarial medicine mefloquine for pregnant women as a malaria treatment option as well as a malaria prevention option for all three trimesters of pregnancy.
During pregnancy, malaria is a substantial contribution to death in both the mother and the child. When it comes to pregnant women, it is a leading cause of anemia, which increases the risk of maternal mortality during delivery owing to hemorrhage. It also increases the risk of stillbirths, preterm birth, and low birth weight, which increases the chance of neonatal death.
Childhood malaria is a leading cause of death in the developing world, and we have shown that the chance of developing childhood malaria is associated with in utero exposure to pregnancy malaria, as well as other host characteristics such as iron status and constitutive cytokine levels.
Most affected are children in Sub-Saharan Africa, and those who survive often develop lifelong disorders that can have a significant impact on their quality of life. These disorders include cognitive, motor, and visual coordination impairments, as well as seizures and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder.
The most important current measures are aimed at reducing contact between humans and mosquitoes, destroying larvae through environmental management and the use of larvicides or mosquito larvae predators, and killing adult mosquitoes through indoor residual spraying and the use of insecticide-treated bed nets, among other methods.
Women in the United States who have uncomplicated malaria during the first trimester of pregnancy should be treated with either mefloquine or quinine with clindamycin, according to current recommendations.
Malaria without complications in pregnancy Women in their first trimester of pregnancy are currently advised to take quinine and clindamycin, according to current recommendations. Clindamycin is not readily available in many locations, and quinine monotherapy often administered instead.
Artesunate-based combination therapy (ACT) is the standard treatment for all forms of falciparum malaria; however, it is not recommended during the first trimester of pregnancy since it has been shown to be harmful in animal experiments, with the potential to cause birth abnormalities or miscarriage.
According to a large retrospective research conducted in Thailand (McGready R et al., 2012), malaria can raise the chance of miscarriage in early pregnancy. However, treatment with antimalarial medications appears to be safe and does not appear to increase the risk of miscarriage.
″Maternal malaria″ is defined as malaria parasitaemia that occurs at least once throughout pregnancy and/or at the time of birth (n = 211). Malaria parasitaemia in peripheral blood at least once throughout pregnancy (n = 138); and malaria parasitaemia in the placenta at delivery and/or in the placenta at least once during pregnancy (n = 73).