Ultrasound Study Provides First Direct Evidence of Effect of Malaria On Fetal Growth

Resource: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2012/02/120209172808.htm Summary: Researchers have recently found that it is very common for pregnant woman to get Malaria, which affects the babies growth in the whomb, or can lead to a mis-carriage. Malaria is a sickness that people can get from infected mosquitos, and it killed about 655,000 people in 2010. Though they are now finding ways that you can help the baby, such as waiting for it to gain weight in the ending or the pregnancy when they usually do gain weight. Also putting the baby on medication right after so that, that could help with problems that they might have when they are getting older. "Strategies to prevent malaria in pregnancy have focused on the second half of pregnancy, when most of the fetal weight gain takes place, but our works suggests that we need to broaden our efforts to focus on the first trimester, too. We need to make sure that pregnant woman are educated about the risks of malaria in pregnancy and, where possible, in areas of high risk offer preventative medication from early pregnancy onwards." explains Dr Marcus Rijken, first author on the study. Critique: This article was very interesting to know about but it doesn't really help anyone that isn't worried about Malaria or doesn't have Malaria. Impact: Though the impact that this article brings is quite big due to the fact that a lot of people may be pregnant and have Malaria and this could help their baby.