Essay Example on Malaria is a fatal infectious disease that harms people all around the World

Malaria is fatal infectious disease that harms people all around the world mainly in tropical Saharan locations The risk of malaria increase with the climate change and changes in land such as through logging road-building mining and agricultural irrigation project The disease can be contracted from the bite of a female anopheles mosquito infected with the plasmodium parasite Out of plethora of plasmodium parasites only 5 cause the disease in humans falciparum vivax malaria ovale and knowlesi After being bite by the plasmodium infected mosquito tiny worm-like sporozoites leave the insects saliva and enter the humans bloodstream to infect red blood cells Minutes is all it takes for the sporozoites to reach the liver where they begin to mature by asexual reproduction and attack hepatic parenchymal cells In 1 2 weeks falciparum malaria and knowlesi change from sporozoites to merozoites as the host cells die while vivax and ovale take another route Taking a longer amount of time from months to years these diseases become hypnozoites and go dormant 

This means instead of dividing right away they cause a delay from the time initially infected to experiencing the symptoms These diseases are generally not inside the red blood cells or asymptomatic Ovale invade red blood cells of all age and vivax invade young immature red blood cells Vivax also uses an erythrocyte surface receptor known as the Duffy antigen and those with sickle cell anemia protect against this disease as they don t the Duffy Other diseases like thalassemia and G6PD make the parasite more likely to die from oxidative stress Merozoites that have been released into the blood each bind to a surface receptor and invade a red blood cell Malariae prefers older red blood cells as does knowlesi and falciparum has no preference Once the merozoite is inside a red blood cell it asexually reproduces which is an ongoing process for 2 3 days The disease then goes into a series of transformation known as the erythrocytic phase

The merozoite starts by becoming a trophozoite which has a ring-like shape the ring then grows and is referred to as a late trophozoite finally the trophozoite becomes a schizont that continues to grow due to the ingestion of hemoglobin At this point, the schizont is now in the processes of mitosis replicating a numerous amount of merozoites preparing to enter the bloodstream 

There are some diseases however that instead of going through the erythrocytic phase undergo gametogenic, where they divide and produce gametocytes Gametocytes, are sexual forms either male or female that are small and sausage-shaped These remain in the red blood cell until it potentially gets taken out by another female anopheles mosquito resulting in the process occurring over again to another person It’s important to know that contracting malaria is just one way of getting infected A mother that winds up with malaria can also put her fetus at risk of contracting the disease at birth which is known as congenital malaria Malaria can also be transmitted by blood meaning that the disease can spread through an organ transplant a blood transfusion or from sharing needles syringes Falciparum causes the worst infections as it generates a sticky protein that coats the surface of the red blood cell victim and gives the appearance of little knobs on the cell

This then will cause the red blood cells to clump together inside the body and block the flowage of blood vessels 

Cytoadherence infected cells cannot flow into the spleen a vital organ which can cause hemolytic anemia and ischemic damage resulting in organ failure When the brain becomes affected cerebral malaria can cause altered mental status seizures and potentially a coma This can also result in blocked blood flow to the lungs and kidneys When the liver is affected bilious malaria results in diarrhea vomiting jaundice and liver failure Primarily symptoms ranging from high-grade fever to death are caused due to the rupture of red blood cells Common symptoms of malaria include shaking chills that can range from moderate to severe high fever profuse sweating headache nausea vomiting abdominal pain diarrhea anemia muscle pain convulsions coma bloody stools Burke 2017 These symptoms typically develop within 10 days 4 weeks following the infection With nausea each disease acts differently in the body

 With malaria this symptom lasts around 72 hours vivax and ovale last around 48 hours knowlesi lasts about 24 hours and falciparum differs anywhere from 24 48 hours Malaria has the greatest impact in Sub Saharan Africa with 90 of the 300 500 million annual cases of malaria 

As previously stated malaria is a fatal disease In 2015 about half of the population worldwide were at risk according to The World Health Organization WHO Shane n d This quote confirms how dangerous this disease is if half the worldwide population was at risk While many are at risk this blood disease is responsible for at least 1 million deaths in Africa each year The World Health Organization WHO reports malaria is responsible for one in five deaths of African children under age 5 every year Shane n d While the disease takes a toll on the people of Africa physically it also affects the infected and the country economically The annual costs of malaria are estimated to be higher than 2 billion US dollars and slows the countries economic growth up to 1 3 percent per year