Download Malaria

What Is
Malaria?
What Do We Know About Malaria?
Malaria . . .
Malaria has been considered to be the
oldest disease in existence.

Ancient writings refer to the disease in
Greece, India, China, and Egypt.
In 12th century, malaria was common in
Europe.
European settlers and African slaves
brought malaria to North and South
America.
What Is Malaria?
A disease caused by a parasite

An organism that lives inside another
organism and causes harm.

The parasite is called Plasmodium

Four kinds of Plasmodium:
falciparum, vivax, ovale, and malariae
This is a
microscopic view
of red blood cells
infected with
Plasmodium
spores. Black
arrows and letters
point to the
infectious spores.
http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/imagepages/146
6.htm
How Does Malaria Work?
The Plasmodium is transmitted from an
infected female Anopheles mosquito to a
human by way of spores.
The saliva from the mosquito contains a
substance to thin the human blood and
keep it flowing.
When the human is bitten by the mosquito,
the Plasmodium spores are transmitted to
the human.
This Anopheles
mosquito is
having a tasty
meal of human
blood. The
blood is stored
in the
abdomen of
the mosquito.
At the same
time, spores
can be
transmitted to
the human.
www.sciam.com/media/inline/812BE32A-F705-A8B2...
An electron microscope view of an
Anopheles mosquito.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2007/07/ma
laria/finkel-text
http://www.biochem3d.com/animations/Mal
01.mpg
How Does Malaria Work?
The malaria spores move from the mosquito to
the human blood stream.
In the blood stream, the spores travel to the liver
where it reproduces at a rapid rate.
http://www.biochem3d.com/animations/Mal02.m
pg
In the human liver, the spores divide many
times and produce large numbers of
spores.
These spores break out of the liver cells
and invade red blood cells.
Spores grow, develop, and multiply in the
red blood cells.
Eventually the spores burst out and destroy the
red blood cells.
http://www.biochem3d.com/animations/Mal03.m
pg
These attacks create the fever and other
symptoms of malaria.
http://www.biochem3d.com/animations/Mal04.m
pg
Red blood
cells under
attack by
Plasmodium
spores.
In this
picture, the
spores have
destroyed
the red
blood cells.
icmrt.org/images/MalariaImages/malaria_blood.jpg
The cycle continues to repeat until:



A natural immunity develops, or
Anti-malaria remedies or medicine stops the
cycle, or
Death occurs.
The red blood cells travel through the
human’s blood.
If the human is bitten by another mosquito,
the spores are transmitted to the mosquito
who then transmits the spores to its next
bite.
This diagram
shows the
cycle of the
Plasmodium
spores. The
mosquito bites
a human, and
the spores
develop and
reproduce.
When another
mosquito bites
the same
human, the
spores are
transmitted to
a different
human when
the 2nd
mosquito bites
a new human.
http://www.lbl.gov/MicroWorlds/xfiles/malariawha
tis.html
Malaria – The Disease
Human develops a high fever (about 105O F) from
9 days to 30 days from bite.
Patient feels cold and develops goose bumps
Fever returns to normal, patient sweats a great deal
Patient begins to feel better
Disease returns anywhere from 48 hours to 6 to 8
weeks
Quinine is current treatment.
Preventing Malaria
No vaccine and no cure for malaria.
Take anti-malaria medicine from your doctor
before going to a tropical area where malaria is
present.
Sleep under mosquito netting at night.
Use insect repellant where malaria is
present.
Wear long sleeves and long pants in tropical
areas.
Preventions
In 1940’s and 1950’s many countries sprayed
DDT, a pesticide, with airplanes in areas where
malaria could be present.
Marshes were sprayed with a paraffin or waxy
substance to coat mosquito larvae.
Stagnant water in marshes were drained to
prevent mosquito larvae from developing.
In this picture a plane spreads
insecticide on the Tennessee River to
destroy malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
Library of Congress LC-USW3- 003975-D [P&P] LOT 151
Another
view of the
aerial
spraying
on the
Tennessee
River
Library of Congress LC-USW3- 003974-D [P&P] LOT 151
Preventions
Avoiding areas of standing water.
Standing water is
a source of
mosquitoes.
This ditch in
Tennessee was
drained of
standing water
where
mosquitoes bred
and laid eggs.
http://memory.loc.gov/cgibin/query/r?pp/fsaall:@field(NUMBER+@band(fsa+8c32749))
In 1960’s countries stopped spraying.
In 1970’s number of reported cases of
malaria were on the rise.
Increasing areas of travel has brought the
malaria back.
Medicines
In 1934 a German pharmaceutical
company successfully manufactured
quinine as a medicine to treat malaria.
In 1943 American companies began
manufacturing chloroquine, another
quinine based drug to treat malaria.
Scientists used
this method to
collect
mosquitoes to
study malaria.
Library of Congress LC-USW3- 003961D [P&P] Lot 151
Companies
manufacturing
quinine would
advertise their
product on the
sides of
buildings in
areas where
malaria was
present.
Advertisements for popular malaria cure,
Natchez, Mississippi
Advertisements for popular malaria cure, Natchez,
Mississippi
The Future of Malaria
Researching new medicine alternatives.
Researching a vaccine to prevent malaria.
Test trials are underway in Africa.
Countries are urged to control mosquito
populations.
Educating people on the disease and
how to prevent becoming infected.
Questions?
The End