What are White Jaundice & Cerebral Malaria?

Two days back a girl in my hostel died from White Jaundice & Cerebral Malaria.. Ppl in my hostel are really scared.. I need to know bout these diseases as how they are transmitted or the reason for getting such diseases.. Pls let me know..

White Jaundice is just the fact that the whites of your eyes turn yellow instead of being white. And Cerebral Malaria can cause this jaundice. Cerebral Malaria is a severe form of Malaria, it attacks the blood vessels in the brain, and is more serious in children. You get Malaria from mosquitoes.




How do you catch malaria?

Malaria is passed on by the Anopheles mosquito biting a person who has malaria parasites in their blood.

The parasites develop in the intestine and salivary glands of the mosquito and can be passed on to other people the next time the mosquito bites.

In man, the parasite travels to the liver via the blood and then out into the bloodstream again where it invades the red blood corpuscles (the cells which carry oxygen in the blood). Malaria can also be passed on by blood transfusions and the use of infected needles
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/travel/diseas...


Cerebral malaria

Cerebral malaria can affect the brain and the rest of the central nervous system. It is characterised by changes in the level of consciousness, convulsions and paralysis.
http://www.netdoctor.co.uk/travel/diseas...


MORE INFO.
Malaria, in the severe forms of cerebral malaria and acute anaemia, still kills over a million young children in Africa each year.

Malaria parasites live in red blood cells and cause them to stick to the inside of small blood vessels, particularly in the brain and eyes. This produces a 'whitening' of the blood vessels.

The disease also harms light-sensitive tissue in the eye because the parasites feed on the supply of oxygen and nutrients it needs.

St Paul鈥檚 has been involved with malaria research and how it affects the eye since 1995, mostly in Malawi and also in Kenya.

With our collaborators we have moved this field forward from interesting curiosity to vital diagnostic tool with unparalleled insight into how malaria becomes life-threatening when it infects the brain. In this disease the eye has truly been a 鈥渨indow on the brain鈥?

Ocular changes in severe malaria
In malaria, changes occur on the retina, the sensitive nerve tissue that detects light at the back of the eye. The retina develops white patches, multiple discreet haemorrhages and the retinal blood vessels, which are normally red, can become white. The optic nerve can become swollen, indicating increased pressure in the head. Remarkably the vision is rarely affected, but by investigating the nature of these changes we have shed light on disease mechanisms in the brain that lead to coma and death.
http://www.eyecharity.com/research_malar...

Jaundice refers to the pigmentation of conjunctiva or white part of the eye ball and skin with a pigment called Bilirubin a product formed in excess or not excreted in Liver dysfunction. The term 'White jaundice' doesn't exist in Medical parlance . It is the term colloquially employed in certain parts of India for PALE conjunctiva seen in Anaemias. It can be caused by a number of conditions and needs thorough evaluation and investigation.
Cerebral Malaria refers to the spread of Malarial infection into the blood stream of cerebral vessels or brain leading to convulsions or fits, irritability worsening to altered consciousness, stupor, complete loss of consciousness ,coma and death unless treated vigorously in time with Quinine.