A Brief Note On Malaria And Its Effects On The World's Poorest

Malaria has been in existence for thousands of years. Many historical records show that it has affected human civilization greatly by plaguing and causing mass death. The earliest record can be traced back to 2700 BC in China (Cox, 2002). It has been long associated with swamps and insects for hundreds of years but often believed to be the air from swamps causing the plague. The term malaria rooted from two Italian words ‘mala’ and ‘aria’ which literally means bad air. Humanity did not know the true nature of the long thought disease until 1894 when a Scottish physician, Sir Ronald Ross, discovered that it was actually the parasite in mosquito that is causing the malaria.

Brian, G, Y., Greenwood, D, A., Fidock, Dennis, E, K., Stefan, H, I. Kappe, P., Alonso, L., Frank, H and Collins, P (2008) “Malaria progress and prospects for eradication.” Journal Clinical Investiment. 118: 1266-1276.

Malaria (also called biduoterian fever, blackwater fever, falciparum malaria, plasmodium, Quartan malaria, and tertian malaria) is one of the most infectious and most common diseases in the world. This serious, sometimes-fatal disease is caused by a parasite that is carried by a certain species of mosquito called the Anopheles. It claims more lives every year than any other transmissible disease except tuberculosis. Every year, five hundred million adults and children (around nine percent of the world’s population) contract the disease and of these, one hundred million people die. Children are more susceptible to the disease than adults, and in Africa, where ninety percent of the world’s cases occur and where eighty percent of the cases

Malaria is a disease that affects nearly 600 million people and causes more than a million deaths a year, the most coming from children under five. This disease is regularly found in more than 100 countries around the world and affects 40% of the world’s population. It is most commonly transmitted by an infected Anopheles mosquito. The most deadly form of malaria is known as Plasmodium falciparum because almost all deaths from malaria are caused by this specific one. Some of the symptoms that are affiliated with this strand of malaria are the destruction of red blood cells along with complications with the kidneys, lungs, and brain. In more serious cases, it can cause permanent neurological effects and even death. As the Nobel Assembly said at the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, “Diseases caused by parasites have plagued humankind for a millennium and constitute a major global health problem. In particular, parasitic diseases affect the world’s poorest populations and represent a huge barrier to improving human health and wellbeing”. Youyou Tu, one of the winners of the prize, discovered Artemisinin, “a drug that has significantly reduced the mortality rates for patients suffering from malaria by killing the malaria parasites an early stage of their development.”

Malaria or other similar diseases like malaria has been recognized and encountered by humans for more than 4,000 years. Malaria is caused by the genus Plasmodium parasites, which enter the human body and are transmitted to people through the bite of a mosquito infected with the parasite (Q&A, Malaria). Once the parasite enters the human body, the parasites multiply in the liver and then infect red blood cells. The malaria parasite was first discovered on November 6, 1880, by a French army surgeon named Charles Louis Al phonse Laveran. While stationed in

The medicine field encountered many scientific discoveries and there were many improvements during World War Two than there had ever been before. Among the many improvements was Malaria treatment. Malaria is a parasitic disease spread by mosquitoes and it causes one to three million deaths annually. Malaria was first identified in 1880 and the transmission of mosquitoes was identified in 1898 (Carlisle). Many organizations aided in the preventing Malaria to spread. The CDC (centers for disease control and prevention) was successful and helped prevent Malaria from occurring during the World War Two time period. By the end of World War Two, success was made in the malarial control program. Not only that, by 1951, Malaria was eradicated from

In Ghana, West Africa, the fight against malaria has been on since the 1950’s (Ghana Health Services, 2014). 3.5 million People contract malaria annually, with 25% of the death of children under the age of 5 tied to malaria (UNICEF, 2007). The effect on malaria on life, economy and productivity is devastating and every attempt aimed at controlling this epidemic is well targeted. Thus, for this project, we are designing a PRECEDE-PROCEED Model (PPM) targeted at malaria control in Ghana, West Africa.

Malaria is a disease that has wrought history since the dawn of time itself. It has conquered some of the mightiest warlords in history including Tutankhamen, Alexander the Great, Attila the Hun and Genghis Khan. The earliest records of malaria symptoms date back to 2700 BCE, first described in the Nei Ching, an ancient Chinese medical script. The Chinese described the prominent symptoms of malaria, discussing the connection between recurring fevers and enlarged spleens. In 1550 BCE the Ebers Papyrus, an ancient Egyptian medical script, mentioned patients suffering from fevers, shivering, vomiting, convulsions and also enlarged spleens. In 600 BCE records of malaria-like fevers rampant in Mesopotamia were found documented on cuneiform tablets. By 400 BCE the symptoms of malaria became widely recognizable in Ancient Greece, where malaria was held responsible for huge population declines in large cities and states. Hippocrates, traditionally regarded as the father of modern medicine, documented the main symptoms of malaria and made extensive notes in the literature of the time. He was also the first to recognise the relationship between occurrences of fevers and close proximity to stagnant waters. The Romans also discovered this connection between fevers and swampy marshes and notably pioneered the first preventative efforts against malaria by draining these swamps. Thus from the medieval Italian language the term ‘malaria’ was coined: mala aria –

The use of the various interventions in preventing malaria infections and deaths has faced a number of challenges including;

Her main scientific breakthrough is the discovery of a new treatment against malaria. (Mai, 2015). When all attempts to kill malaria failed and the disease was rapidly increasing in the 1960s, Tu turned to traditional herbal medicine to curtail the plague. “Tu was the first to show that a component extracted from the plant Artemisia annua, later called artemisinin, was highly effective against the disease”. (Mai, 2015). She received a novel prize in medicine for this discovery, hence becoming the first female Chinese recipient of the

Prevention of malaria what is practiced in epidemic areas is by spraying insecticides like DDT. Many new drugs are available for malaria, however most of the drugs are derived from Quinine derivatives. Malaria often requires treatment with medicine (antimalarial medications). Most of the time antimalarial medications effectively treat the infection; however, some malaria parasites may survive because they are in the liver or are resistant to the

Malaria is caused by parasite, thus anti-biotic will not have effects on them. Infected mosquitoes spread it (Mayo Clinic). It can also be spread from mother to children through blood. However having a malaria-infected person nearby will not cause the disease to spread (WebMD). Malaria remains a prevalent health issue in the tropical area (WHO). In 2015, there are 214 million malaria cases reported, and the mortality rate is 60% (WHO). Typical symptoms of malaria include fever, sweats, headache, nausea and vomiting, and body aches (CDC). Malaria can also develop serious symptoms such as anemia, coma, seizures, metabolic acidosis and kidney failure (CDC). Those severe malaria symptoms usually lead to death. Below is the geographical distribution of malaria.

About 3.3 billion people, that is about half of the world’s population are at risk of contracting malaria (figure 1). Every year there are 250 million cases of malaria, and nearly 1 million deaths. That amounts to 2,732 deaths per day. Out of those million people that die every year, 800,000 of them are African children under the age of 5. To control malaria three actions need to be taken: insecticides need to be used to decrease the vector population, people have to be educated as to how to prevent the vector from reproducing, and anti-malarial drugs need to be distributed. To understand the vector and what the vector is, scientists had to first discover what the parasite was and how it worked. It was not until the year 1880 that French Physician Charles Laveran discovered that Malaria was caused by a protozoan in the genus Plasmodium (Malaria, 2013)

Several species can cause human malaria and most of these species have drug resistant making treatment approach highly dependable on the species that caused it. Multi-drug resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria had been treated with many different, both single and combinations of drugs. The most common type that is known to be effective is the artemisinin-based combination therapy also known as ACT; a combination of artermisinin and its derivatives and longer-acting antimalarial drugs. Studies conducted by Pousibet-Puerto et al. shows the effectiveness of ACT treatment to those with uncomplicated malaria from Plasmodium falciparum compared to those getting the classic treatment, comparing the length of their hospital stays and their

Malaria is one of the ten most common, yet deadly diseases in the world. It is a parasitic disease spread by the bite of Anopheles mosquito, which is active between dusk and dawn. Malaria occurs in over 100 countries and territories.