Feasibility Of Computer Aided Identification Of The Plasmodium Berghei Parasite

Malaria infection is caused by parasitic protozoan plasmodium. Several species of malaria parasites exist but the most fatal known is plasmodium falciparum. It enters the liver and replicates itself by getting into the red blood cell and ripping its way out when fully matured. It was once thought that the US military got close to completely eradicating the vector mosquito through DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) and the parasitic plasmodium with vaccines until they discovered that both are capable of mutating and gained the ability to be resistant to any chemicals scientists could produce (Horizon, 2005).

Malaria is blood disease caused by a parasite called Plasmodium. This disease occurs widely in poor, subtropical and tropical regions of the world. One subtropical region that has been greatly affected by this disease is Sub-Saharan Africa. According to Olowookere, Adeleke, Kuteyi, and Mbakwe (2013) malaria is one of the leading causes of death and illness in sub-Saharan Africa. It is important to be aware of the impacts this disease carries and how it has greatly affected millions of people. This paper will explain the impacts of Malaria and discuss, compare, and contrast the malaria research conducted by various researchers and reflect on the issue.

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

In the chronic phase, because of low and probably intermittent parasitemia, diagnosis relies on serologic detection of specific immunoglobulin G (IgG) antibodies that bind to T cruzi antigens (see Fig. 4A). Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, indirect immunofluorescence, and indirect hemagglutination are most common methods used. Two positive results from any of these 3 conventional techniques are recommended for a final diagnosis.

1. The ability to seek out the human liver, which might provide essential fatty acids the plasmodium parasite cannot produce on its own, is one important adaptation of this organism.

First the host must be infected with the larvae or the parasite. To be infected , the host must eat the larvae and it will end up in the intestines, hatch and start to affect the host. To be infected by the roundworm, the host must step in contaminated soil with their barefoot. This type of infection does not spread onto other individuals. Having the infection has nothing to do with genetics or inheriting diseases from parents.

Malaria has been a huge problem among many developing nations over the past century. The amount of people in the entire world that die from malaria each year is between 700,000 and 2.7 million. 75% of these deaths are African children (Med. Letter on CDC & FDA, 2001). 90% of the malaria cases in the world are located in Sub-Saharan Africa. Once again, the majority of these deaths are of children (Randerson, 2002). The numbers speak for themselves. Malaria is a huge problem and needs to be dealt with immediately.

Prompt and accurate diagnosis is critical to the effective management of malaria. The global impact of malaria has spurred interest in developing effective diagnostic strategies not only for resource-limited areas where malaria is a substantial burden on society, but also in developed countries, where malaria diagnostic expertise is often lacking [4,5]. Malaria diagnosis involves identifying malaria parasites or antigens/products in patient blood. Although this may seem simple, the diagnostic efficacy is subject to many factors. The different forms of the 5 malaria species; the different stages of erythrocytic schizogony, the endemicity of different species, the interrelation between levels of transmission, population movement, parasitemia,

The strain type is thought to play a role in the severity of an infection, and it’s usually determined by genotyping. However, the principal limitation of this method is that it is hard to obtain infective isolates (with the exception of some severe cases or in pregnant women with a positive amniocentesis) (Morisset et al., 2008). It requires isolation of enough parasite DNA, or actual organisms, and, generally, can only be obtained from patients presenting clinical manifestation of the infection (Kong et al., 2003).

The postmortem examination is the most accurate method of determining parasitism. A postmortem exam shows both the types of worms present, and the damage to the animal. Internal parasite infection levels can be estimated in live cattle by counting the eggs shed with the feces. The eggs are quantified as eggs per gram (EPG) of feces by a trained individual. An EPG is only an estimate of parasite populations, because it is incredibly difficult to . Results from this test may be misleading. Variations in egg counts can arise from the ratio of immature to mature worm populations, worm species, degree of inhibition, consistency of the manure, etcetera. Realistically, a herd should be sampled on multiple occasions to determine worm

PARASITES. Malaria is caused by a tiny parasite that is transmitted by a mosquito bite. Other parasites may be transmitted to humans from animal faeces.

practical diagnostic tools with sufficient sensitivity and specificity to detect levels of infection and also possibility of transmission;

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)

Leishmania is under the Phylum – Protozoa, the Sub – phylum – Plasmodroma, The Class – Mastigophora, the Order – Protomonadina, and the Genus – Leishmania (Pujari, 2014a). There are eleven Leishmania species L. aethiopica, L. tropical minor, L. tropica major, L. peruviana, L. mexicana mexicana, L. mexicana amazonensis, L. mexicana pifanoi, L. braziliensis, L. donovani donovani, L. donovani infantum, and L. donovani chagasi that can be contracted by vertebrates. The species of Leishmania do not differ in that of morphological differences but rather of geographical, biological, and clinical features (“Lesihmania” n.da).