7.1  Clinical diagnosis

In Study Session 2, you learned how to classify and diagnose communicable diseases according to their clinical symptoms. In this section, you will be able to apply those principles to the clinical diagnosis of malaria. In Study Session 5 you learned that some members of the population, such as children under the age of five years and pregnant women, are at a higher risk of getting malaria due to their weaker immunity. By learning how to identify malaria with clinical diagnosis (and confirm it with RDTs) you will be able to provide effective and prompt treatment of malaria to patients at the community level. By identifying signs and symptoms of severe malaria, you will also be able to refer patients that need higher medical care to the health centre or hospital. In this way your knowledge and actions could save many lives, as poorly diagnosed and managed malaria could kill many people in your community.