A  BITE  CAN  CHANGE  YOUR  LIFE !!!

Malaria is an air-borne disease caused by a group of parasitic single celled micro-organisms called protozoans belonging to the Plasmodium genus. It is mainly spread and infected by mosquito bites.The disease is carried by infected female Anopheles mosquito. A bite by the infected mosquito introduces the parasite into the person’s blood through the mosquito’s saliva. The parasite thus travel to the liver where they mature and reproduce.

Malaria is widespread in the subtropical and tropical regions mostly around the equator. A large area of Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and Latin America are the ones that are included in this region. Malaria is largely associated with poverty and has a major negative effect on the economic development of a country. THE WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION REPORTS THERE WERE 198 MILLION CASES OF MALARIA WORLDWIDE IN 2013. THIS RESULTED IN AN ESTIMATED 584,000 to 855,000 DEATHS, THE MAJORITY (90%) OF WHICH WERE OCCURRED IN AFRICA.

LIFE  CYCLE OF  THE  MALARIA PARASITE

‍1. A female Anopheles mosquito carrying malaria-causing parasites feeds on a human and injects the parasites in the form of sporozoites into the bloodstream. The sporozoites travel to the liver and invade liver cells.

2. Over 5-16 days, the sporozoites grow, divide, and produce tens of thousands of     haploid forms, called merozoites, per liver cell. Some malaria parasite species remain dormant for extended periods in the liver, causing relapses weeks or months     later.

3. The merozoites exit the liver cells and re-enter the bloodstream, beginning a cycle of invasion of red blood cells, asexual replication, and release of newly formed merozoites from the red blood cells repeatedly over 1-3 days. This multiplication can result in thousands of parasite-infected cells in the host bloodstream, leading to illness and complications of malaria that can last for months if not treated.

‍4. Some of the merozoite-infected blood cells leave the cycle of asexual multiplication. Instead of replicating, the merozoites in these cells develop into sexual forms of the parasite, called male and female gametocytes, that circulate in the bloodstream.

5. When a mosquito bites an infected human, it ingests the gametocytes. In the mosquito gut, the infected human blood cells burst, releasing the gametocytes, which develop further into mature sex cells called gametes. Male and female gametes fuse to form diploid zygotes, which develop into actively moving ookinetes that burrow into the mosquito midgut wall and form oocysts.

6. Growth and division of each oocyst produces thousands of active haploid forms called sporozoites. After 8-15 days, the oocyst bursts, releasing sporozoites into the body cavity of the mosquito, from which they travel to and invade the mosquito salivary glands. The cycle of human infection re-starts when the mosquito takes a blood meal, injecting the sporozoites from its salivary glands into the human bloodstream.