Malaria Is A Horrible Disease

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.

Plasmodium falciparum is a protozoan parasite. It is unique of the class of Plasmodium that is the foundation and cause malaria in individuals. There are other Plasmodium species that can cause malaria in humans. Nevertheless P. falciparum is the most common, virulent, and deadly. P. falciparum communicable by the female Anopheles mosquito.

While the most common way malaria is transmitted is from mosquitoes to humans, there are other ways of catching the disease. One way is from mother to her unborn child. When a disease is contracted this way it is said to have been transmitted congenitally. Another way is during blood transfusions. This is why it is important to be tested for diseases such as malaria before you give blood.

There have been many attempts at preventing malaria, none of which have been very successful. These have usually involved protecting human beings from mosquitoes, the dreaded carriers

Malaria is considered one of the most serious and life-threatening public health problems in the world. According to World Health Organization, more than 3 billion people live in areas classified as being at risk from malaria, with nearly 200 million cases.1 Approximately, 750,000 deaths occur every year, primarily among children, due to malaria and its complications.1 Children less than 5 years of age are more vulnerable to be affected by malaria.2 In 2015, about 438,000 malaria deaths were reported, of which estimated 69% were children under 5 years of age.2

Within Afghanistan, the major sources of treatment for Malaria can be accessed in hospitals, through aid stations which include volunteer workers which enter the boarder from around the world and the world famous Human rights organisation United Nation. The first major strategy used to combat Malaria is the use of vector control, where the numbers of mosquitos or mosquito bites are reduced. Because of the low socio-economic state of

About 90% of cases are in tropical regions of Africa. About 95% of deaths are Africans under the age 5. The most common form of malaria is the product of a nefarious partnership between the Anopheles Gambia mosquito and the Plasmodium Falciparum parasite. Mosquitoes pick up the parasite by feeding on an infected human host. The parasite lives in the mosquitoe 's gut until the mosquito bites another human. (Sheiban et al., 2006).

In poor countries children and pregnant women are the most affected by the disease. Africa is one of the most affected countries in the world. One reason for this is the climate. Another reason is the lack of funding. Two to three billion dollars is needed per year to fund malaria control programs. But around only two hundred million dollars is spent on malaria control by African and UN agencies. Some say that malaria could be the cause of poverty rather than the consequence. Unlike other diseases, malaria is not caused by poor hygiene or unsafe drinking water. The difficulty in controlling malaria is mainly due to climate and ecology. To get rid of malaria completely would require a well run organization and a lot of

Malaria. Our 130 million year old enemy. Malaria has been around since the dawn of time and just like the evolution of humans, the disease evolved over time (Malaria.com, 2011). Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by a specific parasite called Plasmodium, and it is transmitted to people through the bites of an infected female Anopheles mosquito. Plasmodium is a unique parasite because of its structure-it is a single celled organism that multiples in our red blood cells (Canada.com, 2016). The Plasmodium parasite has 4 species which are known to cause the disease in humans, these being: P. Vivax, P. Falciparum, P. Ovale, and P. Malariae. Specifically, P. Vivax, and P. Falciparum are the 2 most common types of parasites to cause the

Malaria has been spread by various factors, from contaminated blood transfusion to mosquitos, being the leading carrier of malaria. It can have damaging effect on the human body, and with it constantly changing, the malaria protozoa becomes harder for doctors to treat. Malaria, causing as 1.2 million deaths in 2011, has had a global impact “(Mcneil 1). It is still heavily impacts people in many tropical areas (“Disease” 202). New natural remedies have been tested to attempt to combat malaria (Avasthi 1).Malaria can have a deadly impact on all types of people, including pregnant women (Gomes 1). The malaria parasite is changing to resist treatments, and doctors are researching how to defeat it (Avasthi 1). Malaria is from genus plasmodium, which

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)

Malaria is spread to people by the female Anopheles mosquito. Only Anopheles mosquitoes can transmit malaria. These mosquitos must have been infected through previous blood taken from an infected person. When a mosquito bites an infected person, a small amount of blood is taken and contains microscopic malaria parasites. (CDC, 2015) When the mosquito takes its next blood meal from another person a week later, the parasites will be injected. The malaria parasite is found in red blood cells of an infected person. It can be transmitted through an organ transplant, blood transfusion, or shared use of needles or syringes contaminated with blood. Malaria can also be transmitted from a mother to her unborn infant before or during delivery. This is known as congenital malaria. Malaria is not contagious in any way. It cannot be spread from person to person like a cold, and cannot be sexually transmitted. (CDC, 2015)

The main cause of Malaria is Plasmodium falciparum or plasmodium vivax, which is carry by the female Anopheles mosquito. As the female Anopheles mosquito bits on the human to take blood meal, the Plasmodium falciparum gets injected to the blood stream via mosquito’s saliva and travels through blood stream and eventually gets to the liver. In liver the Plasmodium falciparum being to multiply asexually. Next they start rupturing liver cells and release back to the blood stream. In the blood the parasite being to invade and multiply again inside the red blood cells. This time they start to reproduce sexually within the blood stream. This occurs until the red blood cells burst and releasing the parasite once again into the blood stream. Bursting of the red blood cells lead to acute anemia. This cycle happens over and over again and each time cause Chile, fever sweating. Rupturing the red blood cells and high temperature fever will eventually lead to death. Next the uninfected female Anopheles mosquito bites on the infected human and by sucking its

Each year 350 to 500 million cases of malaria occur world-wide, and over one million people die, most of them young children.

There are four species in the Plasmodium Genus that affect humans: P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae. What people did not know then, was how the protozoan got from