Is Malaria and Typhoid caused by the same thing?
This is typically a Nigerian question.
Sometimes I wonder who invented this error. And it is spreading like a wild fire in a harmattan season.
You hardly see a typical Nigerian who says that I have malaria or I have typhoid. They will always combine it – I have malaria and typhoid.
Malaria is not in the same class of disease with typhoid. They are different. One is caused by a a protozoan. The other is caused by a bacterium.
MALARIA
Malaria is an infection cause by Plasmodium. Plasmodium is found in mosquitoes.
Plasmodium is the organism that causes malaria . Not mosquito. The Plasmodium is found inside the mosquito, and the job of the mosquito is to bite you and inject Plasmodium into your blood.
The mosquito on its own cannot cause malaria.
When the Plasmodium enters your blood, then you come down with malaria.
TYPHOID
Typhoid is an infection caused by Salmonella.
Salmonella can be gotten from eating raw or uncooked vegetables,drinking contaminated or dirty water, eating dirty or poorly cooked foods.
These are areas through which Salmonella can enter into you. When that happens. You come down with typhoid fever.
So you can see? They do not go together.
Why then do people always say they are suffering from malaria and typhoid at the same time?
I am not saying that both cannot occur at the same time. They can. But that will be a mere coincidence.
While Plasmodium through mosquitoes bite cause malaria, typhoid is caused by Salmonella through what goes into your mouth.
You cannot get malaria by what goes into the mouth. You get malaria by what goes into your blood through mosquito bite.
They are totally different diseases on their own. You do not suffer one because you suffer the other. And one does not cause the other.
SYMPTOMS OF MALARIA
- FEVER
- TIREDNESS
- BODY PAIN
- JOINT PAIN
- LOSS OF APPETITE
- NAUSEA
- VOMITING
- CHILLS
- RIGOR
- HEADACHE
SYMPTOMS TYPHOID FEVER
- FEVER
- HEADACHE
- DIARRHOEA
- CONSTIPATION
- ABDOMINAL/BELLY/TUMMY PAIN
TREATMENT OF MALARIA
Malaria is treated with Artemisinin combination therapy. There are so many brands of ACT in the market. This is where you need to be careful on how you go about treating yourself.
TREATMENT OF TYPHOID
Typhoid is treated with antibiotics. But it is usually complicated. There are so many factors that will help the doctor to choose an appropriate antibiotics. It is not every antibiotic that cures typhoid.
WHEN TO SEE YOUR DOCTOR
If you are sick or feeling sick. There is no need going to buy drugs for malaria to treat Malaria and typhoid. Consult a doctor. He will analyse your symptoms and help you prescribe.
DO I NEED TO GO LAB TO FIRST
No. With your symptoms and signs the doctor will analyze them, and give you drugs. If the doctor is not sure, he will send for a lab test. Many people do not understand this. They think going to lab is the final. You can hardly go to lab without seeing one or two things. Some of them are normal. If you continue to take drugs because of what the lab results say, you will harm your self.