Personal Narrative Essay Examples

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.

"About Malaria." 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.

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 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 is one of the “most severe public health problems worldwide” (Impact of Malaria, 2014). According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), half of

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.

Medical treatment for malaria is available and the disease is curable if promptly diagnosed and treated well. This is crucial because those who have malaria parasites available for mosquitoes to feed on are perpetuating the spread of the disease. However, if these people are treated with the appropriate drugs, the parasites disappear from their bloodstream. This helps to reduce the transmission of the disease. Unfortunately, not everyone is responsive to drug treatments for malaria and thus a variety of alternatives need to be available. Not everyone with malaria parasites in their bloodstream shows the symptoms of malaria and the disease itself is becoming resistant to some of the drugs used to treat

Although there have been many years of research and planned measurements to control the outbreak of malaria, the realization of a malaria-free world remains an ongoing battle. The widespread of this disease continues to expand to different origins in the world. “An estimated two billion people (more than 40% of the world population) live in areas with malaria risk (MFI).” “The global annual incidence ranges between three to five hundred million clinical cases, with a death toll of between two to three million (Okenu).” “Malaria accounts for 10% of Africa’s disease burden, causing the greatest suffering and impoverishment among poor people, with pregnant women and children under five years of age, being the most vulnerable (Okenu).” This

Of all the diseases mentioned above, malaria presents a threat to the greatest number of people. It is a health problem today in more that 90 countries, with total populations of more than 2,400 million people--about 40% of the world's population. It is estimated that there are up to 500 million cases a year worldwide (Glaxo). A British pharmaceutical company called Glaxo Wellcome recently developed the first new industrially researched malaria remedy since World War II. It is a combination drug containing 2 substances, atovaquone and proguanil, given the commercial name Malarone. While this product has proven to be extremely effective in cases involving drug-resistant strains of malaria, the atovaquone component is very expensive to produce, and each recipient requires a full round of therapy lest a Malarone-resistant strain of malaria develop (Glaxo). Most of the people who need Malarone have no access to consistent health care, and cannot afford to pay for the medicine. With this in mind, Glaxo Wellcome founded a donation program to make up to one million courses of Malarone per year available under carefully controlled conditions to the countries that need it most. Pilot areas selected by the World Health Organization include Kenya and Southeast Asia (Glaxo).

As medical technology is increasingly improving with continuous research, scientists are developing a range of medicinal treatments and cures that provide patients with exceptional care. Despite these treatments, there are constant biological diseases emerging that may be a severe threat to patients in the near future. In both western and undeveloped areas, infectious diseases are becoming progressively common and in desperate need of an innovative idea that will decrease death rates. Recent research conducted has found that infectious and parasitic diseases killed approximately 20.2 million people (CDC, 2016). Malaria is caused by any of four different species of the Plasmodium parasite that’s passed on through the bite of an infected mosquito, commonly known as the Anopheles mosquito. Approximately 311 million new infections and 900,000 deaths occur worldwide every year, of this, 438,000 deaths were caused by malaria (10 facts on malaria, 2015). While there is a vaccination for malaria, there is no commercially available vaccine created that produces effective results. The vaccine does not confer lifelong protection. Acquired immunity does not completely provide safety against alternated diseases, and malaria infection can continue for extended periods of time without signs of disease. With the severity of malaria cases additional funding is essential to enhance developing research into a

Facilitated largely by increased political commitment, an up-scaling of World Health Organisation (WHO) vector control measures and expansion of the so-called “artemisinin-based combination therapies”, the past decade has seen remarkable progress in the global effort against malaria. In fact, latest figures approximate that global investments in malaria control have amassed to a 42% reduction in the diseases’ mortality rate between 2000 and 2012, saving an estimated 3.3 million lives during this period.1 Additionally, malaria incidence rates declined by 25% worldwide, in the same epoch, and by 31% in the African region – the epicentre of disease’s devastation on humanity.1

While the existence of malaria has been eradicated in the United States and from most developing countries around the world, Schwartz and Vinci found that malaria

Although many organizations are fighting against malaria, it is still one of the biggest health problems the world faces today (Autino B, Noris A, Russo R, Castelli, 2012).

The treatment of malaria is governed by a variety factors which determine the ability to successfully eradicate this disease. It is important to treat malaria as soon as possible if experiencing the related symptoms. Identifying the species of parasite is a major factor when deciding the correct treatment to use, the location of infection is equally important as well. In certain areas of the world, treatment with antimalarial drugs has become ineffective due to resistance of the parasite. Therapy with antimalarial drugs is the lone treatment that will successfully eliminate the disease. These can be administered as a monotherapy, where resources are limited, and as a more effective combination therapy. In most cases administration is