How to differentiate Dengue and Malaria?

When we talk about mosquito born tropical disease dengue and malaria would top the list although there are other diseases spread by such mosquitoes. Although both dengue and malaria are unheard of in the west, travelers from these parts of the world when lands in a tropical area are at risk of developing these diseases. Although both conditions can have fatal outcomes, the medical management of these conditions can be rather effective and almost all such patients would ultimately recover.

For those who are not so familiar with the two diseases, this article hopes to clarify between the two and following would be the differences as seen between dengue and malaria infections.

Geographical differences: Dengue would be more prevalent in urban areas than malaria due to the enough breeding sites generated by the human dwellers.

Difference in spread:

Dengue virus spread through Aedes mosquito whereas the malaria is spread through anopheles. At the same time, the biting habits of these mosquitoes would also vary and the Aedes would bite during the day time especially in the morning and late afternoon.

Presentation:

Body and muscle aches, backache, headache, mild nausea…etc can be present with both conditions but the malaria would show a characteristic fever with chills and rigors that would differentiate it between the fever in dengue which would not be associated with such chills or rigors in most instances.

Skin manifestations such as macular or macular popular rash, petechial hemorrhages as well as itching and scaling of the skin would be characteristic to dengue fever and would not be apparent in malaria fever.

Diagnosis:

Malaria can be detected through microscopic visuals whereas the dengue would require immune chemical investigations such as antigen or antibody tests.

Treatment:

Antimalarial drugs would be the mainstay of treating malaria whereas in dengue, there is no such specific drug and the mainstay of treatment would be supportive measures with fluid resuscitation and at times blood transfusion as well.