What should you know about the primary cause of malaria?

After entering the bloodstream, the parasite travels to the liver and then infects red blood cells. This process can lead to cycles of fever, chills, sweating, headache, and muscle aches. Symptoms may begin after travel and can appear after you return home. Malaria is not usually spread by ordinary day-to-day contact, but a clinician should assess any unexplained fever after time in a malaria area.

Tell a clinician about recent travel, dates, mosquito exposure, and any preventive medicine. A [Blood Test](/treatments/diagnostics-and-screening/blood-test/) can help confirm malaria, and treatment should begin promptly when it is diagnosed. Before travel, arrange a [Travel Health Consultation](/treatments/occupational-and-travel-medicine/travel-health-consultation/) to discuss [Malaria Prophylaxis](/treatments/occupational-and-travel-medicine/malaria-prophylaxis/), repellents, clothing, and bed nets.

Get urgent medical assessment for fever, chills, or marked illness during travel or after returning from a malaria area. Go to emergency care for confusion, difficulty breathing, seizures, fainting, severe weakness, or repeated vomiting. Malaria can worsen quickly, so do not wait for symptoms to follow a predictable pattern or assume a negative early test settles the question.

Ask whether your travel history warrants testing, when repeat testing is needed, which prevention medicines suit you, and what warning signs require emergency care.