What Is Malaria?

What Do We Know About Malaria?

Malaria . . . Malaria has been considered to be the oldest disease in existence. Ancient writings refer to the disease in Greece, India, China, and Egypt. In 12th century, malaria was common in Europe. European settlers and African slaves brought malaria to North and South America.

What Is Malaria? A disease caused by a parasite An organism that lives inside another organism and causes harm. The parasite is called Plasmodium Four kinds of Plasmodium: falciparum, vivax, ovale, and malariae

This is a microscopic view of red blood cells infected with Plasmodium spores. Black arrows and letters point to the infectious spores. http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/1466.htm

How Does Malaria Work? The Plasmodium is transmitted from an infected female Anopheles mosquito to a human by way of spores. The saliva from the mosquito contains a substance to thin the human blood and keep it flowing. When the human is bitten by the mosquito, the Plasmodium spores are transmitted to the human.

At the same time, spores can be transmitted to the human. This Anopheles mosquito is having a tasty meal of human blood. The blood is stored in the abdomen of the mosquito. At the same time, spores can be transmitted to the human. www.sciam.com/media/inline/812BE32A-F705-A8B2...

An electron microscope view of an Anopheles mosquito. http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/07/malaria/finkel-text

http://www.biochem3d.com/animations/Mal01.mpg

How Does Malaria Work? The malaria spores move from the mosquito to the human blood stream. In the blood stream, the spores travel to the liver where it reproduces at a rapid rate. http://www.biochem3d.com/animations/Mal02.mpg

In the human liver, the spores divide many times and produce large numbers of spores. These spores break out of the liver cells and invade red blood cells. Spores grow, develop, and multiply in the red blood cells.

Eventually the spores burst out and destroy the red blood cells. http://www.biochem3d.com/animations/Mal03.mpg These attacks create the fever and other symptoms of malaria. http://www.biochem3d.com/animations/Mal04.mpg

Red blood cells under attack by Plasmodium spores. In this picture, the spores have destroyed the red blood cells. icmrt.org/images/MalariaImages/malaria_blood.jpg

The cycle continues to repeat until: A natural immunity develops, or Anti-malaria remedies or medicine stops the cycle, or Death occurs.

The red blood cells travel through the human’s blood. If the human is bitten by another mosquito, the spores are transmitted to the mosquito who then transmits the spores to its next bite.

This diagram shows the cycle of the Plasmodium spores This diagram shows the cycle of the Plasmodium spores. The mosquito bites a human, and the spores develop and reproduce. When another mosquito bites the same human, the spores are transmitted to a different human when the 2nd mosquito bites a new human. http://www.lbl.gov/MicroWorlds/xfiles/malariawhatis.html

Malaria – The Disease Human develops a high fever (about 105O F) from 9 days to 30 days from bite. Patient feels cold and develops goose bumps Fever returns to normal, patient sweats a great deal Patient begins to feel better Disease returns anywhere from 48 hours to 6 to 8 weeks Quinine is current treatment.

Preventing Malaria No vaccine and no cure for malaria. Take anti-malaria medicine from your doctor before going to a tropical area where malaria is present. Sleep under mosquito netting at night. Use insect repellant where malaria is Wear long sleeves and long pants in tropical areas.

Preventions In 1940’s and 1950’s many countries sprayed DDT, a pesticide, with airplanes in areas where malaria could be present. Marshes were sprayed with a paraffin or waxy substance to coat mosquito larvae. Stagnant water in marshes were drained to prevent mosquito larvae from developing.

In this picture a plane spreads insecticide on the Tennessee River to destroy malaria-carrying mosquitoes. Library of Congress LC-USW3- 003975-D [P&P] LOT 151

Another view of the aerial spraying on the Tennessee River Library of Congress LC-USW3- 003974-D [P&P] LOT 151

Preventions Avoiding areas of standing water. Standing water is a source of mosquitoes. This ditch in Tennessee was drained of standing water where mosquitoes bred and laid eggs. http://memory.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/r?pp/fsaall:@field(NUMBER+@band(fsa+8c32749))

In 1960’s countries stopped spraying. In 1970’s number of reported cases of malaria were on the rise. Increasing areas of travel has brought the malaria back.

Medicines In 1934 a German pharmaceutical company successfully manufactured quinine as a medicine to treat malaria. In 1943 American companies began manufacturing chloroquine, another quinine based drug to treat malaria.

Scientists used this method to collect mosquitoes to study malaria. Library of Congress LC-USW3- 003961-D [P&P] Lot 151

Companies manufacturing quinine would advertise their product on the sides of buildings in areas where malaria was present. Advertisements for popular malaria cure, Natchez, Mississippi

Advertisements for popular malaria cure, Natchez, Mississippi

The Future of Malaria Researching new medicine alternatives. Researching a vaccine to prevent malaria. Test trials are underway in Africa. Countries are urged to control mosquito populations. Educating people on the disease and how to prevent becoming infected.

Questions? The End