What is malaria?

Answer 1

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Malaria is a life-threatening parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes. It was once thought that the disease came from fetid marshes, hence the name mal aria, ((bad air). In 1880, scientists discovered the real cause of malaria a one-cell parasite called plasmodium. Later they discovered that the parasite is transmitted from person to person through the bite of a female Anopheles mosquito, which requires blood to nurture her eggs.

Today approximately 40% of the world's population mostly those living in the world's poorest countries is at risk of malaria. The disease was once more widespread but it was successfully eliminated from many countries with temperate climates during the mid 20th century. Today malaria is found throughout the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world and causes more than 300 million acute illnesses and at least one million deaths annually.

Ninety per cent of deaths due to malaria occur in Africa south of the Sahara mostly among young children. Malaria kills an African child every 30 seconds. Many children who survive an episode of severe malaria may suffer from learning impairments or brain damage. Pregnant women and their unborn children are also particularly vulnerable to malaria, which is a major cause of perinatal mortality, low birth weight and maternal anaemia.

There are four types of human malaria Plasmodium vivax,
P. malariae, P. ovale and P. falciparum. P. vivax and P. falciparum are the most common and falciparum the most deadly type of malaria infection. Plasmodium falciparum malaria is most common in Africa, south of the Sahara, accounting in large part for the extremely high mortality in this region. There are also worrying indications of the spread of P. falciparum malaria into new regions of the world and its reappearance in areas where it had been eliminated.
The malaria parasite enters the human host when an infected Anopheles mosquito takes a blood meal. Inside the human host, the parasite undergoes a series of changes as part of its complex life-cycle. Its various stages allow plasmodia to evade the immune system, infect the liver and red blood cells, and finally develop into a form that is able to infect a mosquito again when it bites an infected person. Inside the mosquito, the parasite matures until it reaches the sexual stage where it can again infect a human host when the mosquito takes her next blood meal, 10 to 14 or more days later.

Malaria symptoms appear about 9 to 14 days after the infectious mosquito bite, although this varies with different plasmodium species. Typically, malaria produces fever, headache, vomiting and other flu-like symptoms. If drugs are not available for treatment or the parasites are resistant to them, the infection can progress rapidly to become life-threatening. Malaria can kill by infecting and destroying red blood cells (anaemia) and by clogging the capillaries that carry blood to the brain (cerebral malaria) or other vital organs.

Malaria, together with HIV/AIDS and TB, is one of the major public health challenges undermining development in the poorest countries in the world.

Malaria parasites are developing unacceptable levels of resistance to one drug after another and many insecticides are no longer useful against mosquitoes transmitting the disease. Years of vaccine research have produced few hopeful candidates and although scientists are redoubling the search, an effective vaccine is at best years away.

Science still has no magic bullet for malaria and many doubt that such a single solution will ever exist. Nevertheless, effective low-cost strategies are available for its treatment, prevention and control and the Roll Back Malaria global partnership is vigorously promoting them in Africa and other malaria-endemic regions of the world. Mosquito nets treated with insecticide reduce malaria transmission and child deaths. Prevention of malaria in pregnant women, through measures such as Intermittent Preventive Treatment and the use of insecticide-treated nets (ITNs), results in improvement in maternal health, infant health and survival. Prompt access to treatment with effective up-to-date medicines, such as artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs), saves lives. If countries can apply these and other measures on a wide scale and monitor them, then the burden of malaria will be significantly reduced.

Answer 2

Haha, Malaria is the worst thing I ever caught when I lived in Ivory Coast. It is basically a virus you can catch from mosquitoes that hold the infected blood of someone who has already been infected. After infection, it takes about three weeks for the symptoms to kick in...very high fever, chills and sweat, vomiting, and very very weak. There is medication for it and also a preventing pill, but malaria is fatal without treatment. In Africa, many people die from Malaria, but only because they cannot afford the medicine. The problem is that after catching Malaria, your blood is stained for life...but no side-effects occur. You can only catch Malaria in Jungle-like environments or Humid countries (Philippines, Ivory Coast), and you can only get it if the right mosquito bites you...mind you that there is only one type of mosquito that can infect you with malaria and it is only the female that does so. If you are going to a place where it is possible to catch Malaria, just take the preventive pills (start taking them two weeks before travel) and wear mosquito repellent while you are there. If you do catch it, don't worry, as long as you can afford the medicine or treatment (sometimes if the attack is too strong, you will need to stay in the hospital for a couple of days) you will be fine.

Answer 3

A disease caused by members of the protozoan genus Plasmodium, a widespread group of sporozoans that parasitize the human liver and red blood cells. Four species can infect humans: P. vivax, causing vivax or benign tertian malaria; P. ovale, a very similar form found chiefly in central Africa that causes ovale malaria; P. malariae, which causes malariae or quartan malaria; and P. falciparum, the highly pathogenic causative organism of falciparum or malignant tertian malaria. Malaria is characterized by periodic chills, fever, and sweats, often leading to severe anemia, an enlarged spleen, and other complications that may result in loss of life, especially among infants whose deaths are almost always attributed to falciparum malaria. The infective agents are inoculated into the human bloodstream by the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito, more than 60 species of which can carry the infection to humans. The disease is found in all tropical and some temperate regions, but it has been eradicated in North America, Europe, and Russia. Despite control efforts, malaria has probably been the greatest single killer disease throughout human history and continues to be a major infectious disease.

Answer 4

Malaria is an infection caused by a parasite and carried from person to person by mosquitoes.
Malaria kills over a million people a year. The parasitic disease is present in 90 countries and infects one in 10 of the world's population - mainly people living in Africa, India, Brazil, Sri Lanka, Vietnam, Colombia and the Solomon Islands.
There are four main types of malaria, all spread via mosquitoes.

Answer 5

I've had 7 malaria cases in 1 1/2 years working in Infectious Diseases. However, 6 of these were from recent travellers in the tropics. However, 1 mysterious patient hadn't been out of the country. Malaria is definitely becoming more prevalent in Southern European countries i.e. Spain, Italy, France etc. However, with global warming occurring, we may be getting malaria on these shores.

Answer 6

Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite that infects the red blood cells. Of the 4 types of malaria, the most serious type is falciparum malaria. It can be life-threatening. The other 3 types of malaria (vivax, malariae, and ovale) are generally less serious and are not life-threatening.

Answer 7

Malaria is a viral fever caused by Plasmodium vivax (mostly) which is transmitted by mosquitoes. It occurs mostly in tropical and sub-tropical regions. Dangerous if not properly medicated and may lead to death. Some of the symptoms are high fever at regular intervals of 24 or 48 hours, shivering and headaches. Can be prevented by preventing breeding of mosquitoes or by taking care against the bite.

Answer 8

People left out the fact that if you are a carrier of the sickle cell anemia gene, which means you have a few of the symptms but not the full blown disease, then you are much more likley to survive malaria, even without treatment. This is because when the parisite infects the cells, the cells sickle up (take the crescent shape) and the parasite cannot effectivly feed and eventually dies.

Answer 9

Malaria (from Medieval Italian: mala aria — "bad air"; formerly called ague or marsh fever) is an infectious disease that is widespread in many tropical and subtropical regions. It causes between one and three million deaths annually, mostly among young children in Sub-Saharan Africa. The disease is caused by a protistan parasite of the genus Plasmodium that is transmitted primarily by female Anopheles mosquitoes. Plasmodium invades and consumes the red blood cells of its host, which leads to symptoms including fever, anemia, and in severe cases, a coma potentially leading to death. Some techniques used to control the disease include mosquito eradication with insecticides, prevention of mosquito bites, and the use of drugs to prevent and treat infection.

Answer 10

Malaria is a plasmodium parasite spread by mosquitos, that destroys red blood cells (ertyhocytes) and hepatic (liver) cells; mosquitos in certian parts of Africa carry this lethal disease, it's vectorborne, meaning that it can only be carried by insects. Quinine, an alkaloid drug derived from cinchona tree is used to destroy the drug, quinine is also in tonic water. Prevention is a must. Malaria has killed more than HIV, flu, and measles combined, nets treated with insecticide are generally deployed in the western regions of Africa; nets aren't the only form of prevention, antimalarial pills should be taken too!