What causes malaria and how to cure it?
Malaria is caused by a protozoan parasite, like an amoeba. You can ingest these parasites by drinking infected water, or eating food that was cooked in infected water. You can also get this disease from mosquitoes that are carrying the infection. Typically, the malaria parasite lives in the tropical regions of the world. Cases of malaria in areas of the world like the Midwest United States are rare, and almost always occur in someone who has visited the tropical countries. There are many drugs available specifically to treat malaria. of course, the idea is to kill the parasite without killing the patient! Full information, including a list of drugs and prescribed treatments, can be found here: http://www.cdc.
What is malaria? Malaria is an infectious disease caused by a parasite, Plasmodium, which infects red blood cells. Malaria is characterized by cycles of chills, fever, pain and sweating. Historical records suggest malaria has infected humans since the beginning of mankind. The name “mal ‘aria” (meaning “bad air” in Italian) was first used in English in 1740 by H. Walpole when describing the disease. The term was shortened to “malaria” in the 20th century. C. Laveran in 1880 was the first to identify the parasites in human blood. In 1889, R. Ross discovered that mosquitoes transmitted malaria. Of the four species of malaria, the most serious type is Plasmodium falciparum malaria. It can be life-threatening. The other three species of malaria (P. vivax, P. malariae, and P. ovale) are generally less serious and are not life-threatening. How is malaria transmitted? The life cycle of the parasite is complicated (for life cycle details, see
Mesquitos acidentally ingest the larva of a microscopic, parasitic worm that causes maleria. multipliesmesquito bites a person, the worm larva goes inside the person’s body, travels through the blood stream to the liver, where the larva get inside liver cells. Inside the liver cells, the larva develop into worms (still microscopic in size), and they multiply, and start to travel thoughout the body by means of the person’s blood stream. There are medicines that a person can take if they have maleria, but I cannot remember what they are called. If you go to the Center of Disease and Control’s (CDC) website and type in their search engine box “malaria” it will give you a much better explaination of how this parasite causes maleria, what the symptoms of the disease are, what can be done to prevent contracting the disease, and what drugs can be used to treat it, than I can. I did a college essay about parasitic diseases, and I talked about malaria, and I got some of my information from the
