Prevalence of Malaria and a comparative study of peripheral blood smear, Quantitative buffy coat and malaria antigen rapid test methods in the diagnosis of malaria from Dakshina Kannada District, India

Malaria caused by Plasmodium species, P.vivax, P.malariae, P.falciparum and P.ovale transmitted by female Anopheline mosquitoes poses a diagnostic challenge to medical community world wide. Over 90% of Malaria is caused by P.vivax and P.falciparum. Now malaria is mostly confined to tropical and subtropical areas of the world; the warm climate, heavy rain fall and stagnant water provide an ideal environment for mosquitoe breeding in these areas. Malarial paroxysm is the characteristics defining clinical symptoms of the disease including cold stage, hot stage and sweating stage and the other characteristic symptoms such as fever, chills, body pain, head ache, nausea, vomiting, diarrhoea etc., Malaria due to P.falciparuum is fatal due to multi system disease associated with complications such as cerebral malaria, algid malaria, septicemic malaria, severe anaemia, kidney failure, acute respiratory distress syndrome, metabolic acidosis, hypoglycemia etc ([email protected], 2010). Occurrence of malaria encomposes ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 2 Number 12 (2013) pp. 671-675 http://www.ijcmas.com