Public domain image; Wikimedia Commons

What is malaria? What causes malaria?

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted Malaria is caused by a microscopic parasite
to people by mosquitoes. called Plasmodium. Four species of this
parasite infect humans to cause malaria
An estimated 700,000 people were kiled by malaria in 2010 globally and but Plasmodium falciparum is the most
approximately half the world’s population are at risk of the disease. deadly.
Malaria is preventable and curable. Plasmodium is transmitted between people
In the map on the left, the territory size by blood-eating mosquitoes. The mosquito
is proportional to the number of malaria is described as a malaria ‘vector’ becasue
Plasmodium (yellow) inside a red blood it spreads but doesn’t actually cause
cases. cell (red). This image was taken with an
electron microscope. disease.
9 out of 10 malaria deaths occur in
Africa and most of these are in children. Plasmodium has a complex life cycle involving the
infection and destruction of red blood cells (see
left).
Gengh
© SASI Group (University of Sheffield) and Mark Newman (University of Michigan).

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Symptoms of malaria
Initial symptoms are similar to the flu:
>> Fever, headache, shivering, vomiting
In severe cases of Plasmodium falciparum
malaria, these symptoms can develop:
>> Severe anaemia (lack of oxygen in blood), breathing
difficulties, organ failure, problems with the nervous
system e i a - f re
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How is malaria diagnosed?

Image courtesy of Tomia; Wikimedia Commons

Because the symptoms of malaria can be similar to those
of other conditions, the best way of diagnosing it is to
look at samples of a patient’s blood down a microscope.
If you can see malaria parasites then the patient has
malaria.

Plasmodium
parasite
Left: Plasmodium in a patient’s blood
viewed with a light microscope
Right: Red blood cells viewed with an
electron microscope

Why doesn’t the immune system stop us How can malaria be prevented?
from getting malaria? The main way of preventing malaria is to target mosquitoes by:
To beat malaria, the immune system needs to be able to > Reducing areas of standing water where mosquitoes breed
find Plasmodium. But Plasmodium hides, first in liver cells > Using insecticide-treated bed nets that help prevent
and then in red blood cells. mosquitoe bites
This prevents the immune system’s > Spraying houses indoors with insecticides that kill
white blood cells from finding and destroying it. mosquitoes when they land
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Vaccines could help prevent malaria
mosquito re needed
and conti to infect
nue the li a A malaria vaccine would train the immune system
How is malaria treated? fe cycle
to find and destroy Plasmodium before it does any
Quick diagnosis and treatment of malaria with anti-malarial damage.
drugs prevents deaths and reduces transmission. But the
The most promising vaccine being
cost of such drugs and the development of resistance by
researched is called RTS,S and is
Plasmodium poses challenges.
currently being tested to see how safe
Ideally, we would prevent people from getting malaria in the and effective it is.
Above: chemical structure first place.
of the anti-malarial drug
Artemisinin. All uncredited images are copyright Evimalar and have been used with permission.
Public domain image; Wikimedia Commons