Malaria - Diagnosis
Malaria can be diagnosed with a blood test. A sample of a patient's blood is taken and studied under a microscope to detect the presence of parasites. Blood tests sometimes need to be repeated after a seventy-two-hour period to confirm the diagnosis.
The three stages of malaria can also be used to diagnose the disease. A person who lives in an area where malaria is common and who has chills, fever, and a very high temperature should have a blood test as quickly as possible.
Malaria is sometimes misdiagnosed in North America. The disease is not very common in this part of the world, and its symptoms are similar to those of the flu (see influenza entry). A doctor may think that a person has the flu when he or she really has malaria. This kind of misdiagnosis can result in the patient's death if he or she has a severe case of malaria.
Malaria has been a known disease for centuries and was described in medical records from ancient China, India, and Greece. Doctors first believed that malaria was caused by poisonous vapors in the air. People who lived around swamps, bogs, and other wetlands were especially likely to get the disease. Therefore, it was presumed that it must be the "bad gases" given off by these watery regions. In fact, the name of the disease comes from two Italian words for "bad air": mal- ("bad") and -aria ("air").
The Romans are credited with one of the most successful attempts to eliminate malaria. They drained large areas of swampy land around the city, believing that they were cutting off the supply of "bad gases." In fact, they were destroying the wet areas in which malaria carriers (the mosquitoes) lived and bred.
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