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Malaria

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Introduction: The word malaria comes from 18th century Italian “male” meaning "bad" and “aria” meaning "air". The term was first coined by Dr. Francisco Torti, Italy, when people thought the disease was caused by foul air in marshy areas. It was not until 1880 that scientists discovered that malaria was a parasitic disease which is transmitted by the “Anopheles” mosquito. Malaria is one of the most widespread infectious diseases of our time. There are more than 225 million cases of malaria each year, taking the lives of 781,000 people a year (World Malaria Report, 2010). Major proportion of death occurs in Sub-Saharan Africa and victims are under the age of 5. Children and pregnant women are among the most vulnerable. Many Sub-tropical countries of Latin America, Caribbean, Africa, Oceania and Asia are at risk. It is the fifth leading cause of death worldwide and almost 40% world’s population is at risk.
Causes:
Malaria parasites are members of the genus Plasmodium. P.falciparum, P.malariae, P.ovale, P.vivax and P.knowlesi are responsible for malaria in humans. P.falciparum is the most common type of infection and is responsible for 80% of all malaria cases and 90% deaths from malaria. “Malaria parasites contain apicoplasts an organelle usually found in plants, complete with their own functioning genomes. These apicoplast are thought to have originated through the endosymbiosys of algae and play a crucial role in various aspects of parasite metabolism e.g. fatty acid bio-synthesis”, (Köhler et al, March 1997). The primary hosts and transmission vectors of the malaria parasites are the female mosquitoes of the Anopheles genus. When an infected Anopheles mosquito bites a person infected with malaria, the mosquitoes ingest the malaria parasite and carry Plasmodium sporozoites in their salivary glands. This is the only type of mosquito that can spread

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