What are the symptoms of malaria and how dangerous is it?
Malaria symptoms appear about 9 to 14 days after an infectious mosquito bite. Typically, malaria causes fever, headache, vomiting, and other flu-like symptoms. If drugs are not available for treatment or the parasites are resistant to them, the infection can progress rapidly to become life-threatening. Malaria can kill by infecting and destroying red blood cells (causing anemia, which manifests itself by weakness, pallor, and yellow discoloration of eyes); or, in the case of cerebral malaria, by clogging the capillaries that carry blood to the brain causing convulsions and coma; or by clogging the capillaries of other vital organs, such as the kidney or the liver, which leads to kidney or liver failure. The illness is usually less severe in adults, thanks to their acquired immunity. Infections in young children are serious and can be fatal if not treated promptly.
