Which sex is the worst about washing up? Why is it so important? We’ve got the dirty truth on how and when to wash your hands.
Malaria
What Increases Your Risk
Factors that increase your risk of getting malaria include:
- Living or traveling in a country or region where malaria is present.
- Traveling in an area where malaria is common and:
- Not taking medicine to prevent malaria before, during, and after travel, or failing to take the medicine correctly.
- Being outdoors, especially in rural areas, between dusk and dawn (nighttime), when the mosquitoes that transmit malaria are most active.
- Not taking steps to protect yourself from mosquito bites.
Your risk of getting malaria depends on your age, history of exposure to malaria, and whether you are pregnant. Most adults who have lived in areas where malaria is present have developed partial immunity to malaria because of previous infections and so almost never develop severe disease. But young children who live in these areas and travelers to these areas are especially at risk for malaria because they have not developed this immunity.
How Scientists Identify a Virus
Public health scientists verified that a common virus -- a coronavirus -- that has become more severe as the likely cause of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). Many people wonder just how scientists know that the cause is a virus and, more importantly, this particular virus. In 1890, Robert Koch described the basis rules that scientists use to determine if an infectious organism causes a specific disease. These four rules are called "Koch's postulates." The organism must be found in...
Read the How Scientists Identify a Virus article > >
Pregnant women are more likely than nonpregnant women to get severe malaria, because the immune system is suppressed during pregnancy.
In addition, pregnant women, young children, older adults, and people with other health problems are more likely to have serious complications if they get malaria.
You can take measures to reduce the risk of malaria if you live in areas where the disease is present, or if you are traveling in these areas.
Malaria is more severe in people who have had their spleen removed (splenectomy).
WebMD Medical Reference from Healthwise
Malaria Topics
Hot Topics
- Which Drugstore Tooth Whiteners Work Best?
- Is Your Psoriasis Treatment Working?
- Eating Out? Cut Calories, Heartburn
- 16 Tips for Clear Skin
- Top 12 Dog Behavior Problems
- Generic Drugs: What You Need to Know
- Causes and Cures of Bad Breath
- Depression, Pain & Anxiety: What's the Link?
- How Diabetes Affects Your Teeth
- Ulcerative Colitis: Check Your Symptoms
