IT'S TIME WE FACE WHAT IS FACING US By @srrebullient

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Hey guys,
It's a pleasure to see the last month of the year and it's a great blessing to also be healthy in it.

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Previously, I have talked about some health defects such as ulcers which is a health defect induced majorly by stress and starvation amongst Nigerian students and the country at large.

In as much as the ulcer is very common amongst Nigerians due to the level of hardship in this part of the world, it is still not the most common.

We have a series of diseases in Nigeria which are quite common and dangerous but the most common amongst them is Malaria

WHAT IS MALARIA

Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite called Plasmodium falciparum which is transmitted into the blood stream by an infected Female Anopheles mosquito.

Malaria is so common to the point that we Nigerians have somehow lost sight of its deadlines.

According to research, about 300,000 Nigerians die of malaria every year and that's a number far above what AIDS and other health defects which we are more concerned about kills yearly.

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Deaths from malaria can result through several means which include;

• Cerebral malaria
• Fever
• Rapturing of red blood cells

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• Celebral malaria

Cerebral malaria is caused as a result of blood being filled with a plasmodium parasite. This will lead to the blockage of blood vessels leading to the brain.

This in turn will lead to the swelling of the brain leading to brain damage which in turn causes death.

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• FEVER

Fever is caused as a result of the body activating the immune system in other to fight the foreign body (plasmodium). This high body temperature increases the functions of enzymes due to high kinetic energy.

But, when there is a much increase in body temperature, certain enzymes begin to denature (breakdown) therefore leading to a pulse in certain body activities that are normally catalyzed by these enzymes thereby leading to the inability of the body to perform certain life-sustaining activities such as digestion.

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• RAPTURING OF RED BLOOD CELLS

This is one of the major causes of malaria deaths. The parasite infection occurs at the red blood cell and after the completion of its cycle, it ruptures the red blood cells leading to a severe reduction in red blood cells thereby causing hemolytic anemia and other health-related problems such as jaundice, liver failure, kidney failure, etc.

TREATMENT / PREVENTION

Prevention of malaria is mostly achieved through lack of exposure to mosquito bites due to the lack of malaria vaccines. This lack of exposure is mostly achieved by the use of insecticides and mosquito repellents.

In cases whereby one is already infected by the parasite, one should take anti-malaria drugs such as Artemether and lumefantrine which will help subdue the parasite.

MY STANDS AND CHALLENGES

Malaria has been a major life threatening sickness amongst Nigerians. Due to its rate of occurance, it has been regarded as normal.

Despite not being taken so seriously as it should, malaria is still constantly claiming lives yearly.

Instead of working to produce drugs that are primarily needed overseas, we Nigerian students should focus more on ways to improve malaria treatment and prevention because that is our major problem when it comes to health defects.

We can achieve this by focusing more on ways to improve malaria drug administration because the injection strategy is not favorable to everyone due to the pain that is infected by the injection.

The oral strategy is still not favorable to everyone because not all especially kids like taking oral medication due to its bitter taste.

Therefore I think we should work on ways to produce malaria medications in form of gels that can be applied on the skin surface just the way we applied creams. This will help to increase compliance to medications on the side of patients thereby leading to more positive results.

This method of malaria treatment will encounter a series of challenges due to enzyme activities below the epidermis, dermis, and hypodermis of the skin which is likely to affect and destroy the emerging drug coming through the skin.

Also, the activities of the antibodies are also a factor that will create hindrance in this method of administration due to the fact that these antibodies are known to digest all foreign bodies and will likely identify the emerging drugs as a foreign body and therefore engulf them.

CONCLUSION

Despite these expected challenges as regards modification of malaria drugs, I still believe that if we Nigerian students should focus and put more effort into research with the help of our various schools, we can come up with a better way to combat these challenges and thus achieve a better way of malaria drug administration.