Malaria: One World

Malaria is by far one if not the deadliest diseases ever roaming around our globe. Already from the times of the dinosaurs, Malaria has caused the deaths of way too many creatures and humans every year, and more people have probably died of it than from any other catchable disease. About every tenth person who catches the disease ends up dying from it, especially children. Malaria is a major problem in the areas of Central and South America, Asia and Africa in which most of the deaths occur. But the problems don’t end there since Malaria has effect on everything in these countries.

So, what exactly is Malaria? Malaria is a mosquito-borne blood disease caused by a parasite that is transmitted to the human and animal hosts by the Anopheles mosquito. The human parasite, Plasmodium is deadly because it digests human red blood cells, but it also changes adhesive properties of the cell that it inhabits. The World Health Association has estimated that around 2.7 million people die because of Malaria every year and professors are working hard around to world to find better and more effective cures to lower down these death rates. Science cannot offer any perfect cure or prevention diseases making it also one of the most feared diseases around the world. Luckily, the best medication and treatment usually does work and as we keep developing the medicines we might get to a point were those full preventions might be possible. 3

If you are wondering if you have Malaria, the general symptoms are pretty noticeable but they are not always identifiable to be Malaria. Normal flu-type symptoms (like fever, headache, muscle ache etc.) are very common, but some stronger symptoms like nausea, vomiting and diarrhea can occur for some people. You can possibly get yellowing of the skin and whites of the eyes because of the damage done to your red blood cells and your liver cells. The severe P. falciparum is a lot more dangerous and harmful, and the symptoms are much more extreme e.g. getting into shock. Since the symptoms of this Malaria are so much stronger, around 15-20% people who still receive the treatment for it end up dying. Luckily this number is growing smaller every year and problems revolving the disease keep getting smaller a bit by bit. As stated in the Malaria Control and it’s Effects on the Environment by the Environmental Studies, University of Aarhus, Spring 2001 page 11 and 12, “Malaria is not only a problem because of its deadly effect; families and small communities are affected in both educational, economical, and sociological ways by the costs caused by being ill and/or by losing family members. Malaria can cause poor school attendance and a lot of people experience economic loses because they cannot work (WHO, 1998).” these deaths have a lot of effect on people.