Abstract:
This descriptive study of malaria patients seeking treatment at general hospital
Anuradhapura was conducted to analyst the frequency of occurrence of some symptoms in
malaria patients and to estimate the approximate duration of parasitaemia in malaria patients
resident within the Anuradhapura district, who sought treatment from general hospital
Anuradhapura. The majority of patients who sought treatment were males and the majority
of infections were caused by plasmodium vivax. Among the "initial symptoms" identified
by patients fever was the commonest. Headache was also identified by a large number of
patients to be the "initial symptom”. The duration of the disease as from the day of onset of
the "initial symptom" to the day of seeking treatment ranged from 1-14 days, and it was
found that up to 89.67 per cent of patients had sought treatment within one week of the
onset of the "initial symptom". Considering the period of continuous residence in the
district, when studying presenting symptoms and immune levels of the population to malaria
appears more important, than considering the age of the patients. Also worthy of
consideration, is the fact that over 10 per cent of the patients had not received treatment,
even one week after the onset of the "initial symptom" which was identified by them to be
the beginning of the present episode of malaria
