Clinical malaria: what should you know?

Malaria is caused by parasites transmitted by infected mosquitoes. Symptoms may include fever, chills, sweating, headache, weakness, nausea and muscle aches. They can come in episodes, but the pattern is not reliable enough to identify malaria at home. Tell a clinician about travel or residence in a malaria-risk area, including when you returned and whether you used preventive medicine.

A clinician may arrange a blood test and repeat testing when suspicion remains despite an early negative result. Other infections can produce a similar fever, so treatment depends on the test result, the species involved and the person’s health and travel history.

Get medical advice promptly for fever during or after travel to a malaria-risk area. Drink fluids if you can, rest, record temperature changes and take only medicines suitable for you. Do not rely on leftover antimalarial tablets or delay testing because symptoms temporarily improve.

For future travel, arrange a travel health consultation early enough to discuss destination-specific malaria prophylaxis, mosquito-bite prevention and what to do if fever develops abroad or after returning. Use long sleeves, screened rooms or bed nets and an appropriate repellent where advised.

Seek emergency care for confusion, fainting, trouble breathing, repeated vomiting, seizures, extreme weakness, inability to drink or rapidly worsening fever. Malaria can become severe, so a person with concerning symptoms should not travel alone or wait for a routine appointment.

Ask which tests are needed, whether testing should be repeated, what treatment side effects require attention and when it is safe to return to work or travel. Share every recent destination, preventive medicine and other medicine you take.