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Why must severe malaria be diagnosed and treated quickly?

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Malaria life cycle — malaria Life cycle of a malaria parasite.

Severe malaria, particularly that caused by Plasmodium falciparum, must be diagnosed and treated immediately because the disease can progress from mild symptoms to coma and death within hours.12

The urgency is driven by the high virulence of P. falciparum, which infects a significantly larger proportion of red blood cells than other species. Furthermore, red blood cells infected with this parasite tend to adhere to the walls of tiny capillaries, obstructing blood flow to vital organs. When this occurs in the brain, it leads to cerebral malaria—a condition characterized by confusion, convulsions, and coma that is frequently fatal.2

Because early symptoms of malaria can easily be mistaken for other illnesses like the flu, prompt medical evaluation is essential to prevent these potentially lethal complications.1