sep 25, 2016 - Malaria 2016
Description:
Malaria, also known as plasmodium infection is a disease that is caused by the plasmodium parasite and transmitted through the bite of infected Anopheles mosquitoes. Once bitten, the parasite is then released into your bloodstream and they travel to the liver and they mature in the liver. Eventually, the matured parasites will infect red blood cells, multiply, and symptoms begin to occur.
With this re-emerging vector borne disease, in 2016, there were over 200 million cases of malaria across almost 100 countries. Malaria is an ancient disease and was at first believed to be caused by bad air. “Mal’aria” means bad air and Romans believed it could be acquired by bad air from swamps and marshes.
Malaria is so common that every 10 seconds someone dies of this disease and a majority if them are children, typically under the age of 5 years old. There have stated to be 2-3 million deaths per year and roughly 90% of cases occur in Africa. With less than 2,000 cases of malaria in the United States, this typically happens from immigrants and travelers from infected areas. With over 45 million pregnancies that are affected by malaria, there are negative health related impacts such as anemia in the mothers and low birthweight or infant mortality in infants.
Symptoms: Common symptoms include chills, vomiting, a fever, and flu-like symptoms. If you leave malaria untreated, your symptoms will become worse and there will be further complications and you can die. The most common regions for malaria cases include countries in the Sub-Saharan Africa region and Southern Asia. With how frequent this disease is, one must take extreme precautions when traveling to locations that are heavily impacted by malaria.
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