What is miasma

Miasma is actually what we call malaria, which is an insect-borne infectious disease caused by Plasmodium. It should be noted that malaria has a relatively large impact on the human body. It is especially prevalent in Africa, Southeast Asia and South African countries. The mortality rate caused by malignant malaria is very high. Patients usually experience symptoms such as fatigue, headache, discomfort, anorexia, chills, fever, etc.

1. Overview

Malaria is an insect-borne infectious disease caused by Plasmodium. Malaria is prevalent in 102 countries and regions. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 2 billion people live in endemic areas, especially in some countries in Africa, Southeast Asia, and Central and South America, where the mortality rate from falciparum malaria is extremely high. In the 1930s, malaria was almost universal. After years of efforts, the incidence rate has dropped significantly, and by 1992 the number of cases nationwide had dropped to 70,000. Due to the incompleteness of primary health organizations in many areas, the underreporting or non-reporting of the epidemic is still serious. Relevant experts estimate that the actual number of cases is 1 to 3 times higher, but the overall downward trend is certain.

2. Symptoms and Signs

1. General symptoms The four typical clinical attacks of human malaria are generally similar and can be divided into the prodromal phase, chills (chills) phase, fever phase, sweating phase and intermittent phase.

(1) Prodromal stage: Patients experience fatigue, headache, malaise, anorexia, chills and low-grade fever. This stage is equivalent to the malarial parasite (schizont) in the liver cells developing into mature merozoites and releasing them into the bloodstream. However, because the density of protozoa in the peripheral blood is too low, microscopic examination is mostly negative.

(2) Chills or shivering phase: lasts from a few minutes to an hour, often accompanied by headache, nausea and vomiting. At this time, the body temperature is usually over 38℃. When examining malarial parasites under a microscope, most of them are schizonts and ring bodies.

(3) Fever period: Generally lasts for 3 to 4 hours, with the headache becoming more severe and the body temperature exceeding 40°C. Patients with multiple relapses may only experience slight chills and low fever, or dizziness, headache, muscle and joint pain, and trigeminal neuralgia from time to time without obvious high fever. The protozoa seen during the febrile period are mainly small trophozoites.

(4) Sweating stage: Sweating may range from slight to heavy. During this period, body temperature quickly returns to normal and the above symptoms gradually disappear.

(5) Interval period: refers to the interval between two attacks. The length of time depends on the species of insect and immunity. In terms of the typical interval, cases of falciparum malaria are very irregular, ranging from a few hours to 24 to 48 hours. Cases of vivax malaria and ovale malaria are about 48 hours, and cases of quartan malaria are 72 hours. Except for Plasmodium falciparum, the protozoa found under microscopic examination are mainly large trophozoites.