 [ Symptoms ] our child in college is being treated for depression we feel more support is needed but live far away what can we do [ Disease ] when you are bitten by a malaria  infected mosquito the parasites that cause malaria are injected into your blood and invade your liver cells the parasite reproduces in the liver cells which then burst open allowing thousands of new parasites to enter the bloodstream and infect red blood cells the parasites reproduce again in the blood cells kill the blood cells and then move to other uninfected blood cells the time from the initial malaria infection until symptoms appear incubation period generally ranges from 1 9 to 14 days for plasmodium p  falciparum 12 to 18 days for p vivax and p ovale 18 to 40 days for p malariae 11 to 12 days for p knowlesi symptoms can appear in 7 days occasionally the time between exposure and signs of illness may be as long as 8 to 10 months with p vivax and p ovale because these parasites can survive in the human liver for a long time the incubation period may be longer if you are taking medicine to prevent infection chemoprophylaxis or have developed partial immunity due to previous infections malaria can begin with flu  like symptoms in the early stages infection from p falciparum is similar to infection from p vivax p malariae and p ovale you may have no symptoms or symptoms that are less severe if you are immune or partially immune to malaria common malaria symptoms include fever chills and a rapidly rising temperature headaches nausea and extreme sweating symptoms may appear in cycles the time between episodes of fever and other symptoms varies with the specific parasite you are infected with episodes of symptoms may occur every 48 hours if you are infected with p vivax or p ovale every 72 hours if you are infected with p malariae p falciparum does not usually have a regular cyclic fever after the early stages life threatening complications develop rapidly with p falciparum and p knowlesi and if untreated may result in irreversible complications or death 2 if untreated you may recover in a week to a month or longer after being infected with p vivax p malariae or p ovale malaria can be a very serious disease for a pregnant woman and her unborn baby  fetus  and for young children medication choices are limited for a pregnant woman or a child infection with p falciparum can lead to death for a pregnant woman and her fetus for these reasons a pregnant woman should not travel to an area where she could get p falciparum malaria visit the cdc web site www cdc govmalariatravelindex htm to find out whether malaria is a problem in the country where you will be traveling malaria recurrences malaria caused by p falciparum may come back recur at irregular intervals for up to 2 years if treatment is not complete malaria caused by p vivax and p ovale may recur at irregular intervals for up to 3 to 4 years but medication treatment