Malaria: Kidney, Liver Failures, and Spleen Rupture

Malaria can cause your kidneys or liver to fail, or your spleen to rupture.

Malaria parasites have a love for red blood cells and the liver cells because they feed on these cells. In addition, they break down red blood cells, releasing hemoglobin products that damage the kidney. The spleen, which filters blood, attempts to trap and destroy the parasites and these hemoglobin products, as a defense. In the process, the spleen swells and you feel pains in the the upper left part of your abdomen, just beneath the ribs(where the spleen is located), especially when you breathe in, as the diaphragm massages it when contracting and pushing on this organ.

When out of a malaria endemic zone for a long time, one is more susceptible to a severe attack of malaria, which can result in fatal complications.

The key to preventing malaria complications is to treat malaria early enough, before the damage is done. Better still, one should begin to take prophylaxis immediately, on entry into a malaria endemic area, until such a time that this immunity has developed.

Dr Oliver V Birnso