Malaria Is A Disease That Affects 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.

Malaria has been a major life-threatening disease for thousands of years, and continues to threaten millions of lives around the world. It infects approximately 219 million people each year, mostly poor women and children. What is striking about malaria is the fact that it has the worse effect on those with the least ability to fight the disease. The Republic of Cuba believes that malaria prevention, treatment, and research efforts must be accelerated to eliminate the burden of this disease across Africa, Asia, the Americas, and any country or territory at risk of malaria transmissions.

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

Before the research I knew malaria is a disease which occurs mostly in poor, tropical and subtropical areas of the world. I also knew people get malaria by being bitten by an infective mosquito.

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

Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are currently considered gold standards in the management of uncomplicated malaria. For the liver stages, primaquine is the only drug approved to eliminate hypnozoites. Resistance against existing antimalarials is well documented, and troubling due to the emerging resistance to artemisinins. Therefore, a rising incidence of drug resistance requires the development new drugs, with novel disease targeting strategies. Moreover, the challenge is to develop innovative drugs that demostrate (i) faster onset and longer duration of drug action, (ii) safe for children and pregnant women, and (iii) ideally be amenable to a single-dose administration. Following are brief descriptions of such innovative

"Malaria Cure." Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. CDC, n.d. Web. 10 Dec. 2015. .

According to the Malaria Vaccine Institute, almost 600 million people suffer from malaria each year, and more than one million people die from this disease every year, the most deaths come from children younger than five. Malaria is endemic to over 100 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the South Pacific, around 40% of the world population. Malaria is caused by a parasite that is transferred by the bite of an infected female 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. In addition to being the deadliest form of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum destroys red blood cells along with causing 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.

Around 300-600 million people suffer from malaria each year, and over one million people die from this disease every year, mostly children younger than five. This disease is endemic to over 100 countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, the Middle East, and the South Pacific, almost 40% of the world population. Malaria is caused by a parasite that is transferred by the bite of an infected female 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. In addition to being the deadliest form of malaria, Plasmodium falciparum destroys red blood cells along with causing 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 millennia 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.

Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are currently considered gold standard in the management of uncomplicated malaria. For the liver stages, primaquine is the only drug approved to eliminate hypnozoites. Resistance against existing antimalarials is well documented, and troubling due to the emerging resistance to artemisinins. Therefore, a rising incidence of drug resistance requires the development new drugs, with novel disease targeting strategies. Moreover, the challenge is to develop innovative drugs that demostrate (i) faster onset and longer duration of drug action, (ii) safe for children and pregnant women, and (iii) ideally be amenable to a single-dose administration. Following are brief descriptions of such

Malaria is a major public health concern due to the fact that more than half of the world’s population is currently at risk of developing this disease (WHO, 2015). The regions that are currently affected by the various species of malaria are essential in the analysis for the future global transmission rate. In other words, to utilize the information generated by the Hadley Centre global Climate Model (HADCM) 3 programs, we must first understand the characteristics and features of the regions that are currently affected before we can determine the future impact of this disease. Current data indicates that the P. vivax is capable of living in regions with temperate and sub-tropical climate (Martens et al., 1999). In contrast the P. falciparum and P. malariae are restricted to regions with tropical climate, while the P. ovale is found mostly in Africa (Martens et al., 1999). However, if more regions of the world experience a shift in climate pattern, it can be argued that there will be an increase of the breeding ground available for this vector to grow and reproduce. As of date, all regions of the world are experiencing the effect of the current changes in climate pattern; therefore additional changes will have a global impact.

Malaria is a disease of humans that is caused by the protozoa Plasmodium species and is transferred through the bite of infected female anopheles mosquito. The various species that cause infection in man include Plasmodium (P.) falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, P. malariae and P. knowlesi. The symptoms of malaria include but not limited to cold, elevated temperature, tiredness, general body weakness, and muscle pains. Symptoms show within 28 days after a bite by the female anopheles mosquito, but in case of P. vivax, relapse could still occur up to five years after the initial infection (Walker and Colledge 2014). Various antimalarial medications are

Malaria is an important disease threatening people around the world, existing in all six World Health Organization (WHO) regions (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014). Relatively, the other distribution of this disease covering more than 100 countries in the tropical and subtropical climate region (Cullen & Arguin, 2014). According to WHO (2014), in 2013 there were at least 198 million cases of malaria that occurred globally around the world (estimate range between 124-283 million cases). Additionally, the disease lead to the high rate of death, the uncertainty range was between 367,000-755,000, and the average was about 584,000 deaths in 2013 (WHO, 2014). The estimated 90% of all the deaths caused by malaria are found in the Africa Region, and compared to the other regions, Africa is the highest risk region for malaria (WHO, 2014). WHO (2014) reported, among people of all ages, children under age 5 constitute the largest population of malaria mortalities, having 78% of all deaths. Pregnant women are also the most affected by malaria, for about 20% of low birthweight babies, stillbirth and maternal deaths are present due to malaria infections during pregnancy in endemic areas (WHO, 2014).

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