The diagnosis of malaria is best made by examining both a thin blood film and a thick blood film, so that the detection rate of Plasmodium is higher. Antimalarial treatment should be started immediately after diagnosis. In general, oral antimalarials can be given, but in severe malaria, antimalarials must be given intramuscularly or intravenously. The antimalarial drug commonly used today is chloroquine. However, it is important to note that chloroquine-resistant falciparum malaria has become very common in many parts of the world, such as Southeast Asia and East Africa (it also exists in the south of China), so treatment should be changed to other antimalarials, such as quinine, mefloquine, artemisinin and so on. Plasmodium falciparum strains resistant to quinine or mefloquine have been found. However, to date, no artemisinin-resistant strains have been found. In order to prevent the emergence of drug-resistant strains, it is now generally advocated that a combination of drugs be used, i.e., the simultaneous application of 2-3 antimalarials, such as quinine combined with weekly-acting sulfonamides, sulfonamide synergists, or tetracyclic disorders. The key to treating malaria remains early diagnosis and early treatment, and antimalarial treatment can be tried in patients with highly suspected malaria, even if plasmodium is not found in the blood smear.
Expatriates traveling to endemic areas for business, visiting relatives or work should take malaria prevention drugs, and the commonly used drug is acetaminophen. However, now there has been the emergence of acetamiprid-resistant strains of Plasmodium, so the preventive use of drugs also advocate a combination of drugs, such as acetamiprid or other antimalarials plus weekly sulfonamides and sulfonamides to increase the effectiveness of the agent and so on. Malaria is transmitted by anopheles mosquitoes, so when living and working in endemic areas, mosquito nets should be used for sleeping, especially the use of mosquito nets impregnated with insecticides, such as pyrethroids, etc. The effect is better. Field workers can be in the exposed part of the body coated with mosquito repellent, but the repellent has a certain degree of toxicity, must not be coated around the mouth to avoid poisoning.