How are climatic factors related to malaria endemicity?
Malaria is caused by malarial parasites when they enter the human body as sporozoite through the bite of the Anopheles mosquito. The malarial parasites are Protozoa. Important species causing malaria are Plasmodium falciparum, Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium malariae, and Plasmodium ovale. The most dangerous one is Plasmodium falciparum. Its life cycle consists of pre-eryhrocytic phases in human liver cells and red blood cells plus sporogony. They are injected by mosquitoes and develop to microgametes and macrogametes in the mosquito’s stomach. Microgametes fertilize macrogametes, to produce zygotes. After fertilization, the zygote bores into the gutwall and forms a small cyst called an oocyst, in which sporozoites are produced. Eventually, the oocyst ruptures and liberates a great number of sporozoites. They invade the mosquito’s salivary glands and are transmitted to humans when the mosquito bites again.
