Though Maharashtra has seen a marked decline in the number of Malaria cases over the last few years, falciparum strain, the more virulent malarial virus, is posing new problems for doctors across the city.

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The falciparum strain of malaria is transmitted by the female anopheles mosquito. It is the most dangerous strain of malaria and causes the most number of deaths.  The problem that Mumbai doctors face today is that cases involving a new and improved falciparum strain, that is resistant to popular chloroquine based drugs like Lariago, is on the ascendancy. The new strain of falciparum is also presenting itself in ways that are making it difficult to diagnose.

“Often you don’t get the high-grade fever and chills that we associate with malaria. You can now get redness of eyes, body and joint aches, intermittent low-grade fever, gastroenteritis, jaundice, viral hepatitis, acute renal failure and liver problems and also acute breathlessness. Many a time the falciparum strain is at the root of all these problems but because it’s expressing itself in all these new ways, it often gets misdiagnosed,” says Dr Shashi  Pawar, public health specialist at Dr LH Hiranandani Hospital.

“The falciparum strain is also occurring with other vector borne infections such as dengue. This is also making it difficult to diagnose and treat the disease,” adds Dr Pawar.

The resistance of the virus is due to the misuse of malaria medicine. “Proper doses of the proper medicine are not being taken for the appropriate duration. Often, once the fever disappears, patients tend to stop taking the medicine. What they don’t realise is that if they don’t take the full course some of the virus may survive. And this virus then gains resistance to the drug and becomes more powerful,” says Dr Anil Ballani, consultant physician at Lilavati and Hinduja hospitals.

This new strain of falciparum malaria is not only affecting the patient’s health, it’s also affecting the patient’s wallet. Doctors are now using combinations of new drugs to battle the disease. This is leading to more tablets and higher costs for patients.