1.0 Understanding Biology
Malaria is a non-contagious disease caused by protozoan parasites belonging to the Plasmodium genus. It is not spread from person to person in the manner that influenza or the common cold would be, and it is not sexually transmitted either. There are, according to the CDC, more than 100 species of Plasmodium parasites which can infect animals such as reptiles, birds and mammals. Four species have been recognised to infect humans in nature. In addition to this, there is one species that naturally infects macaques which has recently been recognised to be a cause of zoonotic malaria in humans. (CDC, 2012). These four species of Plasmodium parasites are Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and
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This cycle repeats itself; the merozoites invade the red blood cells, multiply or replicate and then rupture the cell. Each time this happens it causes chills, fever and sweating. Also, due to the destruction and depletion of red blood cells, this cycle could cause several complications and even death.
Red cells contain a special protein called haemoglobin, which helps carry oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body and then returns carbon dioxide from the body to the lungs so it can be exhaled (American Society of Haematology, 2015). Oxygen molecules attach themselves to the haemoglobin in red blood cells and therefore interfere with the circulation of oxygen and blood, causing the infected human to become anaemic. This lack of oxygen being circulated throughout the body and the muscular tissues result in the increased rate of muscle fatigue, therefore causing the infected human to feel tired.
After several asexual cycles, the merozoites repeat the process of erythrocyte invasion and instead of replicating; they develop into the sexual form of the parasite known as a gametocyte. The male and female gametocytes require the female Anopheles mosquito to become sporozoites. If an uninfected female Anopheles mosquito bites an infected human host, it will suck up and digest both the male and female gametocytes, allowing them to develop into mature sex cells called gametes. From this stage in the cycle, these gametes enter
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).
This mode of transmission, like malaria, can leave the host deadly sick. Its a cycle, with the parasite in the host, a mosquito will carry the blood with the parasite and inject it into a different host.
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.
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.
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.
That results in deprivation of oxygen rich blood to the tissues and organs that use and need it. This is what causes the painful episodes that are associated with the disease. This pain can sometimes be related to damage to vital organs such as the spleen, liver, kidneys, pelvic bones, heart, lungs, and even the brain. Serious complications from certain infected tissues can happen. They cycle of a normal red blood cell is around 120 days, sickled cells differ and can only last for 10-20 days long. The red blood cell supply shortens because the body can’t keep up making them as fast as they are dying, so this results in a condition called, Anemia.
Malaria is a virus transmitted by a vector known as the mosquito. When pregnant female mosquitos hunger for human blood spreads the virus. Malaria can also be spread via blood to blood, such as transfusions, organ donation, and childbirth. Mosquitoes acquire the virus when biting an infected human. Malaria has two hosts the human and the mosquito. The virus is transmitted from the mosquito via saliva when being bit. The parasite begins it journey in humans in the liver then in a week going into the blood and disrupting normal red blood cell activity. When a mosquito has a blood meal from a infected person the parasite is the transmitted and develops to become a cyst and entering infective state traveling to the mosquitoes salivary glands waiting to be transmitted to a new host.
Malaria, on the other hand, is a disease caused by a parasite that spreads around from different vectors and hosts. There are three factors to the spread of malaria: the vector, the host and the pathogen. According
Fatigue is a symptom of anemia due to the lack of red blood cells to carry fresh oxygen from the lungs to the working organs and structures. For pernicious anemia, the onset is commonly slow and patients can ignore early symptoms. When the hemoglobin levels have dropped considerably, the patient will experience the more poignant symptoms such as; “weakness, fatigue, paresthesias of the feet and fingers, difficulty in walking, loss of appetite, abdominal pains, weight loss (McCance & Heuther, 2014).”
Only female Anopheles mosquitoes can transmit the disease, and they must also have been infected through a previous blood-meal taken from a malaria infected person. If
A 37-year-old woman. Admitted to the hospital because she was suffering from a severe pain in her stomach, she has also a fever and her body temperature increases above Thirty-Eight degrees. In addition to that, she was vomiting all the day. After doing a blood test and other diagnoses. The doctor said that she had a tremendous increase in her white blood cells or leukocytes.
The gametocytes of P. falciparum are taken up by using the female Anopheles mosquito because it takes its blood meal from an infected human. Upon being taken up with the aid of the mosquito, they leave the erythrocyte shell and differentiate into gametes. The female gamete maturation manner entails mild morphological modifications, as it becomes enlarged and round (Chessbrough, 2000). Then again, the male gamete maturation involves sizeable morphological development. The male gamete's DNA divides 3 times to form 8 nuclei and concurrently, eight flagella are formed. every flagella pairs with a nucleus to shape a microgamete, which then separates from the parasite cell in a system referred to as exflagellation (Gilles et. al., 1993). Gametogenesis
Schistosomiasis is the second parasitic infection after malaria (kiros et al., 2014) and is a standout amongst the most pervasive and disregarded illnesses of tropical and subtropical areas (rizk and aly, 2015). B. alexandrina snails are the intermediate host of Schistosoma mansoni (le Clec’h et al. 2016) with high prevalence in Egypt (el-Sheikh et al., 2012).
Only in areas where the malaria parasites can complete its growth cycle in the mosquitoes can humans be infected. There are four species of malaria parasite that can infect humans they are; Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae. The time required for development of the parasite in the mosquito (the extrinsic incubation period) ranges from 10 to 21 days,
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)