based on the patient's symptoms and on physical

findings at examination.
fever, chills, sweats, headaches, muscle pains,
nausea and vomiting
often not specific and are also found in other
diseases
In severe malaria (caused by Plasmodium
falciparum), clinical findings are more striking and
may increase the index of suspicion for malaria.
(confusion, coma, neurologic focal signs, severe
anemia, respiratory difficulties)
should always be confirmed by a laboratory test for
malaria.

can be identified by examining under
the microscope a drop of the patient's
blood
spread out as a "blood smear" on a
microscope slide
the specimen is stained (most often
with the Giemsa stain) to give the
parasites a distinctive appearance

protozoal parasite and a human pathogen
It is less virulent
but vivax malaria can lead to severe
disease and death due to splenomegaly (a
pathologically enlarged spleen)
Tertian (a clinical rhythmicity reflected in periodic fevers
and chills recurring at approximately 48-hour intervals)

is a protozoan parasite
It is transmitted by the
female Anopheles mosquito
is the most dangerous form of malaria
Within the 48-hour asexual blood stage cycle, the mature
forms change the surface properties of infected red blood
cells, causing them to stick to blood vessels (a process called
cytoadherence)
This leads to obstruction of the microcirculation and results
in dysfunction of multiple organs, typically the brain
in cerebral malaria.
Tertian (a clinical rhythmicity reflected in periodic fevers and
chills recurring at approximately 48-hour intervals)
is a parasitic protozoa
is not nearly as dangerous as that produced
by P. falciparum or P. vivax.
It causes fevers that recur at approximately
three-day intervals (a quartan fever), longer
than the two-day (tertian) intervals of the other
malarial parasites, hence its alternate
names quartan fever and quartan malaria.
The vector of transmission of the parasite is the
female Anopheles mosquito
Quartan - 72-hour intervals
For areas where microscopy is not available, or where
laboratory staff are not experienced at malaria diagnosis
Immunochromatographic tests (also called: Malaria Rapid
Diagnostic Tests, Antigen-Capture Assay or "Dipsticks)
these rapid diagnostic tests is in the range of 100
parasites/l of blood (commercial kits can range from about
0.002% to 0.1% parasitemia) compared to 5 by thick film
microscopy
One disadvantage is that dipstick tests are qualitative but not
quantitative they can determine if parasites are present in
the blood, but not how many.


available in some clinical laboratories and
rapid real-time assays
PCR (polymerase chain reaction - is a biochemical technology in molecular
biology used to amplify a single or a few copies of a piece of DNA across
several orders of magnitude, generating thousands to millions of copies of a
particular DNA sequence.) is more accurate than
microscopy.
detect the iron crystal byproduct of
hemoglobin that is found in malaria parasites
feasting on red blood cells
is a laboratory test to detect infection with
malaria or other blood parasites.
parasites can then be observed
under ultraviolet light at the interface
between red blood cells and buffy coat
is more sensitive than the conventional thick
smear and in > 90% of cases the species of
parasite can also be identified.