Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease widely known for its devastating health impacts globally. Despite its popularity in the health industry, many people aren’t familiar with the medical terminologies related to the disease.

There are several malaria terminologies that you need to know before visiting any hospital. Or else it could be a great challenge connecting up with your doctor.

If you are from high-risk malaria areas, you may have heard the nurse or the physician in charge using medical terms like:

• Malaria blood test,
• ACT drugs
• Severe malaria

Or,

You may have come across them in published content or local news report.

These malaria terminologies may have left you wondering with many questions in mind:

What are they referring to?

Is my sickness that bad?

Worse still, you may be mad at them for the medical jargon they use:

Arrrgh! Can’t they use simple medical terms for me to understand?

Worry no more!

This article will explore common malaria terminologies in the health industry and their meanings.

Malaria terminologies useful in malaria classification

Uncomplicated malaria is mild or acute malaria infection whereby a malaria blood test is positive for malaria parasites. Patients do not also present severe malaria signs and symptoms like a coma.

A person with acute malaria infection may exhibit one or more of the following symptoms:

• Fever
• Headaches
• Nausea and vomiting
• Shivering chills
•  Joint or muscle pain
• Dizziness
• Abdominal pain
• General discomfort

Severe malaria is a form of malaria that is life-threatening. It  is often indicated with a positive malaria blood test with patients suffering from any of the complications below:

• Coma
• Organ failure-kidneys and liver
• Breathing difficulties
• Severe anemia
• Cerebral malaria
• Seizures
• Prostration
• Altered consciousness with lethargy

Falciparum malaria is the malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum. Plasmodium falciparum is the malaria parasite responsible for fatal malaria infections worldwide.

Vivax malaria infections are malaria due to Plasmodium vivax.

Cerebral malaria is falciparum severe malaria complication that affects the brain. People suffering from the complication may show neurological abnormalities, including:

• Psychosis
• Irritability
• Ataxia (difficulties with swallowing, walking, speech, muscle coordination)
• Cranial nerve palsy or tremors
• Unarousable coma,
• Subsequent seizures,
• Drowsiness,
• Agitation
• Retinopathy (in children)

Non-neurological abnormalities can also occur:

• Enlargement of liver and spleen (hepatosplenomegaly)
• Jaundice
• Metabolic acidosis
• Severe anemia
• Bleeding due to failure of blood to clot(coagulopathy)
• Low blood sugar levels (hypoglycemia)

Which are the common medical terms in malaria diagnosis?

Malaria blood tests are medical laboratory tests that require a blood sample. These tests are essential in detecting the presence or absence of Plasmodium parasites in your body.

Doctors and laboratory technologists often draw blood samples from patients’ fourth fingers to obtain capillary blood. This approach is known as finger-prick blood sampling.

They may also opt for venipuncture to draw blood from specific veins in your arm or the top of your hand. This is called venous blood sampling.

Recent malaria studies indicate that capillary blood is more sensitive in detecting the malaria parasite level (parasitemia) than venous blood.   However, debates on which malaria blood sampling approach is superior are ongoing.

Why blood samples?

Following malaria infection, the malaria parasites undergo 3 distinct stages: the liver stage, the blood stage, and the sexual stage. During the blood stage, signs and symptoms manifest most, and the parasites are concentrated in the peripheral circulation.

The two common malaria blood tests for routine malaria diagnosis are malaria blood smears and rapid diagnostic tests (RDT).

Malaria blood smears

A positive malaria blood test indicates the presence of malaria parasites in human blood and vice versa.

Malaria blood smears are essential for Plasmodium species identification (thin blood smear) and quantification (thick blood smear). The laboratory technologist can concurrently identify and count the number of malaria parasites by examining Giemsa-stained thin and thick malaria blood smears under microscopy.

 

The laboratory technologist may give you a lab report with the (+) indications to take to the doctor for further clinical assessment.

En route to the doctor’s office, you may wonder, what does (+) imply?

The quantification of malaria parasites in thick blood smears is crucial for doctors to classify malaria infections. The quantification process is reached by counting the number of parasitized red blood cells with Plasmodium against 8,000 white blood cells per microliter of blood.

This is what the (+) signs mean when you are suffering from falciparum malaria:

• + = 10-90 malaria parasites (acute malaria)
• + + = 100-1,000 malaria parasites (acute malaria)
• + + + = 1,000- 10,000 (acute malaria)
• + + + + = > 250,000 malaria parasites (severe malaria)

Rapid diagnostic test (RDT)

RDT is a malaria diagnostic test that aids in detecting the presence of specific Plasmodium antigens in the patient’s blood sample.

RDTs are the best alternatives to malaria microscopy in resource-limited settings or during fieldwork studies. The significant drawbacks are that they cannot detect very low levels of malaria parasites and distinguish new from recurrent infections.

Medical terms in malaria treatment and management

Artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs) are a class of malaria treatments for treating a mild form of the disease.

Quinine, parenteral, or rectal artesunate suppositories are medications for treating severe malaria.

Malaria prophylactic drugs help prevent one from catching malaria, particularly travelers visiting high-risk malaria regions.

First-line treatment is the standard medicine for treating a specific form of malaria according to a country’s Ministry of health guidelines.

Second-line treatment is the second-best alternative malaria medication for patients who fail to respond to the first-line treatment.

Intermittent preventive treatment (IPTp) in pregnancy is a type of malaria medicine that reduces malaria infections in expectant mothers. Currently, sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP).is the standard drug in areas prone to malaria.

RTS-S is the only human falciparum malaria vaccine for preventing malaria infections in children under 5 years old.

Radical cures are medications for treating malaria following the reactivation of the dormant liver stages (hypnozoites) for malaria parasites. This medical term applies to latent malaria infections due to Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium ovale.   Primaquine is an example of a commonly used radical cure.

Drug-resistant malaria parasites are those that do not respond to malaria therapies. Some are resistant to chloroquine, sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine, and some ACTs.

Related article:  Emerging threat of artemisinin resistance in malaria control

What are malaria terminologies in malaria research?

Antimalarial drug’s efficacy clinical trials

These research studies evaluate whether the standard malaria therapies in place are still effective against the malaria parasites in a region. It involves human study participants, hence, the term clinical trial.

Antimalarial efficacy trials are crucial in revising the malaria treatment guidelines in a country.

Depending on the clinical study, a comparison of two or more malaria medicines is done: the standard drug acts as the control of the efficacy trial. For example, malaria researchers in Kenya can use artemether-lumefantrine(Coartem®).

And,

Dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (Duocotexin®) and pyronaridine-artesunate (® as the test drugs.

Rescue therapy

This malaria medical term refers to a malaria drug that is useful when a study participant doesn’t respond to a standard malaria treatment.

For example, a malaria study comparing the efficacy of two ACTs for treating acute malaria: Coartem®, the first-line drug, and Pyramax® as the test drug. If a Kenyan study participant fails to respond to Coartem®, Duocotexin® will serve as the rescue treatment.

Parasite clearance time (PCT)

PCT is the time it takes antimalarial drugs to clear all the parasites resulting in the first and subsequent negative malaria blood smears after treatment.

Malaria medicines clear malaria parasites at different rates. Nevertheless, most current ACTs have a PCT of less than 72 hours.

ACTs with PCT > 72 hours have slower rates of eliminating malaria parasites suggesting the probable emergence of artemisinin resistance.

What is malaria recurrence?

Overall, malaria recurrence is a malaria terminology that refers to malaria cases that can result from a relapse, reinfections, or recrudescence.

Recrudescence refers to a repeated attack of malaria illness that arises due to the survival of malaria parasites in the red blood cells. It is common in malaria cases due to Plasmodium malariae.

Relapse, on the other hand, is a malaria infection after the reactivation of the dormant liver stages of Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium ovale. Malaria relapses can occur even after successful malaria treatment.

Malaria reinfection entails a new illness after a bite from an infected female anopheline mosquito.

 

Read also:  Everything You Need to Know about Toxoplasmosis

Bottom line

Malaria is a serious and potentially life-threatening parasitic infection that Plasmodium causes. By understanding malaria terminologies, we can better understand the disease and works towards preventing and treating it effectively. With continued effort from governments and health organizations, we can work towards eliminating malaria and creating a world where everyone has access to the care and resources they need to stay healthy and safe.

 

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