Malaria Is the Word's Most Important Vector-Borne Disease
Essay by Maxi • September 14, 2011 • Essay • 347 Words (2 Pages) • 2,241 Views
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Malaria is the word's most important vector-borne disease. It is currently endemic (found
in a particular area or a particular group of people), and 2400 million people are at risk to
develop malaria (Martens et al., 1999). More than 90% of the worldwide cases are
reported in sub-Saharan Africa; Asia and Americas are thought to have 5-2o million cases per year, where 80% of these occur in Asia (Anderson et al., 1996). Million deaths
are caused by malaria every year, especially in young children in rural Africa (Hales and
Woodward, 2003) where malaria is responsible for the deaths of one in 20 children
before the age of five (Anderson et al., 1996).
But what is malaria and how is transmitted? Well, malaria is an infectious disease which
is conveyed from person to person by a mosquito. There are 422 species of mosquitoes
around the world but only about 70 species are vectors of malaria. The main vector
species in Africa, the Anopheles gambiae complex, is the major factor for the
transmission of this disease to humans (Martens et al., 1999). In addition, malaria is
caused by species of parasites which belong to the genus Plasmodium: Plasmodium
vivax, P.falciparum,P.ovale, and P. malariae. P.falciparum is the most common species
in tropical areas and the most dangerous clinically, while P.vivax has the most extensive
geographic range and is present in many temperate zones as well as the tropics and
subtropics. The transmission occurs through the female mosquitoes which require blood
for the development of her eggs (Anderson et al. 1996). Thus, P.vivax and P.falciparum
have different roles on the transmission
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