What we need to know about Malaria 05/11/2021

Warm greetings to you all my dear steemians. Hope we are doing great by the grace of the Lord. I would like to share with you today some little things we need to know about malaria.

Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted by a vector called Female Anopheles mosquito. When an infected Female Anopheles mosquito bites man during a blood meal, it injects a stage of the parasite into the blood, which is carried by blood to the liver and then to red blood cells. Those parasites feed on the red blood cells content (hemoglobin) and mature within 10 to 21 days, after which they can still be picked up by an uninfected mosquito during a blood meal.
Some malaria signs and symptoms include fever, headache, chills, fever, anaemia (due to destruction of red blood cells and parasites feeding on hemoglobin), shivering etc. The period of time for symptoms to appear depends on how competent the person's immune system is and also on the parasitemia (number of parasites in the blood), so, those with a weak immune system will easily develop signs of the disease. Children, pregnant women and person's with HIV)AIDS are highly at risk of coming down with the disease since they have a weak immune system.
Malaria is difficult to eradicate because of the vector which is always present in our environment due to poor hygiene conditions and also due to the climatic conditions of the tropics which favours the growth of the mosquito vector.
Malaria can be prevented by wearing long protective clothings so as to prevent mosquito bites, clearing bushes around our houses, avoiding stagnant water around our houses since it serves as a breeding site for mosquitoes, sleep under insecticide treated mosquito nets, and most importantly by sensitizing the population.

Only Female Anopheles mosquitoes transmit the parasite since they only feed on blood since the blood helps them in the development of their eggs. Males only feed on sap from plants.

In the laboratory, malaria tests are done using blood and they can be diagnosed through microscopy or using Rapid Diagnostic Test kits.

Below is a picture of malaria parasites in the red blood cells of an infected person ( the ring structures with a dot at the end are the parasites). The ones that are reddish in colour out of the red cells are the other stages of the parasite found in blood.

(Malaria parasites in a blood sample)

So, my dear steemians please let us try and protect ourselves from coming down with this disease.