Fever in Children: When to Worry and When to Wait
Fever is not the illness — it is the body fighting one. How the child looks and behaves tells you far more than the number on the thermometer.
Read articleMalaria is a parasitic infection spread by the night-biting Anopheles mosquito, causing fever with chills and rigors. Falciparum malaria can become severe quickly, so any fever with chills deserves a blood test rather than a guess.
Symptoms
Not everyone gets every symptom, and the pattern can differ in older people, in people with diabetes and in children. These are the ones most often reported.
- Fever with shaking chills and rigors, often in a recurring pattern
- Profuse sweating as the fever breaks
- Severe headache and body ache
- Nausea and vomiting
- Weakness and pallor from destruction of red cells
- Yellowing of the eyes and dark urine in severe infection
When to see a doctor
Do not wait these out
If any of the following applies, arrange to be seen the same day. For anything sudden or severe, call 9281862028 or come straight to the emergency department at SIMS — it is open 24 hours and does not need an appointment.
- Fever with chills — get a malaria test the same day
- Drowsiness, confusion, seizures or breathlessness — attend the emergency department
- Reduced urine output, yellow eyes or bleeding
- Fever in a pregnant woman or a young child, where malaria progresses faster
Tests that may be advised
Your consultant will order only the investigations that change the plan. Most of the following are available on the SIMS campus, so results usually come back the same visit.
- Peripheral smear for malarial parasite
- Rapid diagnostic antigen test
- Complete blood count and platelet count
- Kidney function, liver function and blood sugar
- Tests to exclude dengue and typhoid, which present similarly
How it is treated
Treatment is decided case by case — by how advanced the problem is, what else you are being treated for, and what you can realistically sustain. Broadly, it involves the following.
- Anti-malarial treatment matched to the parasite species and severity, completed fully
- Admission and intravenous treatment for severe malaria
- Fluid, glucose and organ support in complicated cases
- Fever control and correction of anaemia
- Prevention: mosquito nets, repellents, full-sleeved clothing at dusk, and removing stagnant water
This page is general information, not a diagnosis
Malaria can look like several other conditions, and the reverse is equally true. Nothing here can replace an examination, your test results and the judgement of the doctor treating you — and no medicine mentioned by name to a friend or relative should be started on the strength of this page. If you recognise yourself in it, book a consultation with the General Medicine department. If a symptom is sudden or severe, call 9281862028.
