Diagnosis and Treatment of Malaria in Cameroon

There are simple and severe cases of malaria. Simple malaria is defined as having a positive malaria test and a fever of 39.5˚C or less with any of the following: chills, headache, body aches, joint pain, back pain, loss of appetite, nausea, vomiting, or diarrhea. Severe malaria, on the other hand, comes with a positive malaria test and a fever of 39.5˚C or more with at least one of the following: severe anemia, convulsions, shallow and rapid breathing, severe dehydration, delirium, hypoglycemia, jaundice, acute renal failure, shock, and death.

In Cameroon, both simple and severe malaria are diagnosed with either a rapid diagnostic test or with microscopy. The rapid diagnostic test (RDT) is done with a finger prick and shows whether or not the patient has malaria but not the severity. Microscopy is done by drawing blood and shows not only whether or not the patient has malaria but also whether the infection is simple or severe. Rapid diagnostic tests are used most often in Cameroon because the results come back quickly and don't require lab equipment or technicians.

Simple malaria is typically treated with Artemisinin Combined Therapies (ACT), which are made up of two anti-malarial drugs coupled together. Treatment of simple malaria is a three-day course of treatment of which the dosage depends on the age and weight of the patient. Severe malaria is treated intravenously (injection) with fast acting drugs to quickly reduce the malaria parasites in the patient.

"Fun Fact: Chloroquine started out as a great anti-malarial drug. In fact, it worked so well that doctors started treating every case of fever with it, without verifying if each fever was, in fact, a case of malaria. This, combined with people not completing their course of treatment, resulted in the parasite developing a total resistance to Chloroquine, and as such, it can no longer be used to treat malaria in the majority of the world."

• U.S. Peace Corps Cameroon Malaria Handbook, 2014 edition