Symptoms And Symptoms Of Diseases

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I chose this article because I am very interested in the field and study of the brain also known as neurology. I wanted to study a predominant disease that ails society which is malaria. I know that malaria affects thousands in many unfortunate countries and has afflicted many children and adults. Malaria is a disease carried by vectors, usually mosquitos, that are mostly predominate in Africa and has many different symptoms ranging from the mild (coughing or chills) to serious (cerebral malaria or acute respiratory distress syndrome). This far range of symptoms can affect anyone, but the most at risk are very young children or pregnant women and could be fatal if not treated in time. I know that malarial infection is treatable with the…show more content…
Although some many survive from cerebral malaria, it is a debilitating disease that could permanently affect a child’s brain development and cause a neurodisability that is non-reversible or result in retinopathy, a condition in which the retina of the eye is damaged which could result in blindness. In my article it mentions that cerebral malaria treatments have had recently improved so that adjunctive therapies that directly target the disease have been developed, but the mortality rate of death in children who have been treated for cerebral malaria remains high because they do not have a strong immune system. Additionally in recent studies, it has been found there was an increase in brain weight for those with cerebral malaria which has lead doctors to the conclusion that the built up pressure inside the cranium was the cause of death through the use of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) to find the clinical cause of death.
During this study, the researchers wanted to find the association between increased brain volume and death caused by cerebral malaria. This study was performed in Malawi, a very poor and underdeveloped country in southeast Africa, where children who were older than 5 months and met the criteria for cerebral malaria were studied due to the fact that they had suffered either a decreased state of consciousness or had gone into a coma with no other reasonable cause. Due to this, many children were given intravenous quinine.
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