Characteristics Of Malaria

Mosquitoes pass malaria to humans through their salivary glands. Once the parasites have entered the blood stream, they go to the liver. In the liver they mature and undergo reproduction, forming merozoites. These merozoites enter the blood stream and inject themselves into red blood cells. Once inside the blood cells, they reproduce rapidly and within forty-eight to seventy-two hours, the blood cell bursts, releasing hemoglobin into the blood stream. It is the destruction of these blood cells and the hemoglobin released into the blood stream that actually causes most of the symptoms.

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by the parasite plasmodium. In recent years, most cases in the U.S. have been in people who have acquired the disease after travelling to tropical and sub-tropical areas. Over 200 million cases worldwide are reported each year.

The guinea worm disease is most common in Africa. There is only about 1,000 US cases per year, but still it’s very rare to obtain in the US. The Guinea Worm Disease is a parasitic infection occurs and thrives off of dirty water. This disease has been terminated from most parts of the world but the most cases occur in parts of Africa. The reason being, in Africa it is not easy to come across clean water, therefore, the guinea worm thrives in Africa.

This is reason why I chose this topic and there is some information about these infections.

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

In the past decade at an alarming rate Malaria has been escalating, especially in Africa. In Africa alone Malaria cases account for 90% of the known cases in the world. There are an estimated 400 million cases of this disease each year which is said to cause 1.5 – 2.7 million deaths.

Infections are caused by infectious agents including viruses, bacteria, nematodes such as roundworm and pinworms and others such as tapeworm. Hosts can fight infections using their immune system.

This condition is caused by the parasite Trypanosoma brucei gambiense. This parasite is found in parts of Western and Central Africa, usually in areas with forests, thick shrubbery, rivers, and water holes. A person can become infected after:

People infected with malaria often experience fever, chills, and flu-like illnesses and then they may develop severe complications and die if left untreated.

The incubation period between the bite of the mosquito is fourteen days. Falciparum malaria has an incubation period of around eighteen days and the malaria infection has a 6 week incubation period. Symptoms of malaria can begin as early as sixteen to eighteen days after a bite by an infected mosquito. They include: High fever (up to 105 degrees Fahrenheit) with shaking chills, profuse sweating when the fever suddenly drops fatigue, headache, muscle aches, abdominal discomfort, nausea, vomiting, feeling faint when you stand up or sit up quickly. If treatment is delayed, more severe complications of malaria can occur such as brain tissue injury, which can cause extreme sleepiness, delirium, unconsciousness, convulsions and coma, pulmonary edema, which is a dangerous accumulation of fluid inside the lungs that interferes with breathing, kidney failure, and severe anemia, resulting from the destruction of infected red blood cells and decrease in the production of new red blood cells (WHO,

Malaria is mostly affected in Africa due to combination of factors in that country. Due to their mosquito’s type and bacteria carrying. There local weather condition allows transmission to occur all year long. In most cases Malaria is less chance to cause death but if not diagnosed on time can lead to death especially in children.

Infectious diseases are caused by agents that invade the host and produce an alteration in the state of health. These agents include viruses, true bacteria, protozoa like bacteria, fungus like bacteria, rickettsial organisms, chlamydial organisms, fungi, and yeast like fungi, mycoplasmal agents, and internal and external parasites. In addition to these causative agents, stress must be included as a cause or condition for the development of disease.

After the introduction of the pathogen, it was clear that various non-pathogens could cause harm to people. The concept of the pathogen was initially was referred to microbe causing the disease. Scientists have involved themselves in research to critical understand the properties of fungi, bacteria, parasites and viruses that were able to make people become ill. During the research, there were seminal discoveries that were able to be got (Casadevall and Pirofski). These included various roles of fungal and bacterial toxins available in diseases. Microbe, however, causes diseases only with the host. In 1950, the microbes that caused infections were common opening channel of skin and blood relating to the treatments suppressing

organism to still watch out for as it harms certain tracts in certain bodies. This disease is most

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the symptoms of malaria vary in time and severity. The CDC recognizes two main types of malaria, termed “uncomplicated” and “severe” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). The first of the two is rather short-term, and occurs and ends under a day’s time. The symptoms of the “uncomplicated” malaria include, “Fever, chills, general malaise, sweats, and headaches” (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). On the