Definition |
Malaria is an infectious disease caused by parasites (Plasmodium malaria) that are transmitted from a sick person to a healthy person through the bites of malarial mosquitoes. The disease is most common in tropical countries. |
Specialty |
Microbiology |
History |
Malaria is believed to be native to West Africa (P. falciparum) and Central Africa (P. vivax). Molecular genetic evidence suggests that the preparasitic ancestor of Plasmodium was a free-living protozoan capable of photosynthesis that adapted to live in the gut of aquatic invertebrates. In 1880, the French military doctor Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, who worked in Algeria, discovered a living unicellular organism in the blood cells of a malaria patient. A year later, the scientist published in the medical press an article “The parasitic nature of malaria: a description of a new parasite found in the blood of malaria patients.” This was the first time that protozoa had been identified as the cause of a disease. |
Symptoms |
The disease begins with malaise, weakness, headache, pain in the muscles, joints, lower back, dry mouth, then a sharp increase in temperature, vomiting, indigestion, cough, disorders of the nervous and other systems of the body. |
Causes |
The source of the causative agent of malaria is a sick person or parasite carrier, and the carrier is mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles. |
Virology |
In the body of mosquitoes that have drunk the blood of a sick person, a large number of active malarial parasites are formed. When the mosquito bites, parasites first enter the bloodstream, then the cells of the human liver. |
Prevention |
Main safety methods include mosquito control, treatment of premises with insecticides, and prevention of mosquito bites. |
Diagnostic Method |
The main method for diagnosing malaria is parasitological – the detection of malarial plasmodia in peripheral blood (from a finger). A blood test for malaria in febrile patients can be performed regardless of the stage of development of the disease. |
Treatment |
Treatment of a patient with malaria should be carried out only in a hospital with antimalarial drugs, under the strict supervision of a physician. |
Duration |
Symptoms of the disease appear 7 days or more (average 10-15 days) after being bitten by an infected mosquito. In some cases, symptoms may linger for up to 5-12 months. |
Prognosis |
If treatment is not started within the first 24 hours, malaria can develop into a serious disease, often fatal. |
Complications |
Possible complications include cerebral edema, acute renal failure, heart failure, serious damage by parasites to various internal organs, malarial coma, and mental disorders. |
Frequency in Population |
Between 300 and 600 million people are infected with malaria each year, and according to WHO, this figure is increasing by 16% annually. |
Deaths |
Every year, 1,5 to 3 million people die from malaria. |
Society |
Over the past decade, malaria has moved from third place in terms of the number of deaths per year – after pneumonia and tuberculosis – to the first among infectious diseases. This caused the global healthcare industry to alert the society to the dangers of malaria. |