Malaria Is A Dangerous Parasitic Disease

The illness associated with the malaria parasite was first thought to be a result of poisonous mists drifting from marshes hence its name meaning “bad air” in Italian. Of course it was unbeknownst back then that it was actually caused by the female anopheles mosquito which tends to live near still water such as marshes.2 Although it was unknown what actually caused the symptoms of malaria,

Malaria is a life threatening disease that has the capability of impacting the lives of about 3.2 billion people around the world. This large amount of people accounts for almost half of the world 's population. In the United States alone, there are about 1,500 cases of malaria every year. Although Malaria is preventable, and even curable, many countries do not have the money and resources to fight this disease. 1As of 2015, there are 97 countries and territories that are known to have ongoing cases of malaria transmission and there were 214

Malaria kills approximately five hundred thousand people per year. Ninety percent of those deaths occur in the Saharan section of Africa. Although Approximate 3 billion people live in areas where they are at risk of contracting malaria in a total of 106 countries around the world. “There were an estimated 198 million malaria cases worldwide in 2013, mostly pregnant women and children”. (Unknown author, malarianomore.org, 2015) “There are about 10,000 malaria cases per year in Western Europe, and 1300-1500 in the united stated and ….In Saharan, Africa maternal malaria is associated with up to 200,000 estimated infant deaths yearly.” (Wikipedia, obtained 2015)

The pandemic outbreak of malaria several decades ago, before the advent of the Millennium development goals (MDGs), claimed so much lives in Africa. This was greatly influenced by

What exactly is malaria? Malaria is a disease caused by certain mosquitoes passing on parasites when feeding on people. The most common malaria parasite and is known to be the deadliest is plasmodium falciparum (figure 1). Once this parasite has enters the body, it takes a few weeks before it multiply into thousands and infects red blood cells. According to Malaria No More, it is also known that plasmodium falciparum is carried and transmitted by only female anopheles mosquito and feed on people between the time of 9pm to 5am (Malaria No More).

During the research period for this paper a lot was learned, especially concerning the transmission of malaria and everything that is used to prevent and cure the horrible disease. The most important things that were learned were what exactly malaria does to the human body (the whole process), how exactly malaria is transmitted, why it is so hard to be stopped, and what organizations are trying to solve malaria and what they are doing to help the worldwide problem.

Most of the areas with a high density of malaria are also less developed countries. The lack of financial resources limits their ability to treat the sick. The people tend

Malaria is still a principal cause of illness and mortality, with an assessed 19,000 deaths in 2006 (WHO, 2009). In 2007, 38.5% of children below the age of five were positive for malaria parasites in a country widestudy (MISAU-PNCM, 2009).

Half of the world’s population lives in areas that are at risk of this this disease. In 1880 Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran was the first to discover that parasites were found in the blood .It has influeced a lot of the human population as well as human history.In 2013 about 123 million people were diagnosed with malaria killing approximetly 660,000 people of all diferent ages and sizes (cdc, 2013). “Between 2000 and 2015, malaria incidence among populations at risk (the rate of new cases) fell by 37% globally. In that same period, malaria death rates among populations at risk fell by 60% globally among all age groups, and by 65% among children under 5.” (who, 2016). “Sub-Saharan Africa carries a disproportionately high share of the global malaria burden. In 2015, the region was home to 88% of malaria cases and 90% of malaria deaths.” (who, 2016).

Malaria is a life threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through bites of infected mosquitoes. In 2008, malaria caused nearly one million deaths, mostly among African children but malaria is preventable and curable. In 2008 Africa, there were 247 million cases of malaria and nearly one million deaths –mostly children under the age of five.

Malaria has been traced back to the Palaeogene period; this protozoan parasite is over 30 million years old. The first Anopheles mosquito were found preserved in amber. The mosquitoes that were found preserved in amber were tested for traces of Plasmodium

The parasite that causes malaria is developing resistance to both artemisinin and piperaquine. In Vietnam, ACTs have a failure rate of 33%; in Cambodia, it is closer to 60%. Drug-resistant malaria is mostly isolated to Southeast Asia for now, but if it spread to Africa, where 92% of malaria cases occur, could be disastrous. (Gallagher, 2017). Chloroquine-resistant malaria developed in the 1950s and spread from Southeast Asia to Africa by the 1990s; it may provide insight into how artemisinin-resistant malaria may spread and endanger Africa. (Roberts, 2016)

The malaria parasites are some of the most wide spread parasites, with pervasiveness reaching 100%. The World Health Organisation (WHO) estimates the number of cases of Malaria in 2012 was 207 million, 627,000 of those resulting in death. 90% of the cases above occurred in sub-Saharan Africa. Malaria is present in more than 100 countries, the population of these countries making up 40% of the world’s overall population. The majority of the deaths occur in remote rural villages where they have a lack of medical facilities at a close and easy distance. Some people in a population are more at risk than others – for example pregnant women are more vulnerable due to the physiological strain of child bearing, as well as prenatal anaemia and low birth weight as are children, non-immune travellers,

[3] [Figure 2] "Malaria." Preventing Reintroduction in Mauritius. Geneva: World Health Organization, 2012. 31.Http://www.who.int/malaria/publications/atoz/9789241504461/en/index.html. page10.WHO. Web. [Accessed: 15 Jan 2014].

However, about 54% of these deaths occur in Africa (1)(3). This research paper explains the history of malaria, the types of parasites, symptoms and causes, stages of the disease, malaria therapies, and the potential side effects.