Malaria is caused by parasites of the species Plasmodium. The parasites are spread to people through the bites of infected mosquitoes. Mosquito netting is the safest and most sustainable method of Malaria prevention.  This is especially true for children under 7 and pregnant women, who are unable to take preventative medication or treatment and are the most likely to die of malaria. Simply sleeping under a net increases their chances of survival dramatically.

Malaria disproportionately affects poor people who cannot afford prevention and treatment; which traps families and communities in a downward spiral of poverty. 

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Malaria Worldwide:
Forty-one percent of the world's population live in areas where malaria is transmitted (e.g., parts of Africa, Asia, the Middle East, Central and South America, Hispaniola, and Oceania).
Each year 350–500 million cases of malaria occur worldwide, and over one million people die, most of them young children in sub-Saharan Africa.

In 2002, malaria was the fourth cause of death in children in developing countries, after perinatal conditions (conditions occurring around the time of birth), lower respiratory infections (pneumonias), and diarrheal diseases. Malaria caused 10.7% of all children's deaths in developing countries.

Not all people go to hospitals when sick or having a baby, and many die at home. Thus the true numbers of death and disease caused by malaria are likely much higher.

Biology, Pathology, Epidemiology:
Residents of Asembo Bay (Western Kenya) were bitten 60-300 times a year by a malaria-carrying mosquito in the 1990's, before control measures (including the use of insecticide-treated bed nets) were put in place.

Among the four malaria species that infect humans, Plasmodium vivax and P. ovale can develop dormant liver stages that can reactivate after symptomless intervals of up to 2 (P. vivax) to 4 years (P. ovale).

Pregnant women have increased susceptibility to Plasmodium falciparum malaria; in malaria-endemic countries, P. falciparum contributes to 8-14% of low birth weight, which in turn decreases the chance of a baby’s survival.

After a single sporozoite (the parasite form inoculated by the female mosquito) of Plasmodium falciparum invades a liver cell, the parasite grows in 6 days and produces 30,000-40,000 daughter cells (merozoites) which are released into the blood when the liver cell ruptures. In the blood, after a single merozoite invades a red blood cell, the parasite grows in 48 hours and produces 8-24 daughter cells, which are released into the blood when the red blood cell ruptures.

Prevention and Treatment:
Four Nobel prizes have been awarded for work associated with malaria, to Sir Ronald Ross (1902), Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran (1907), Julius Wagner-Jauregg (1927) and Paul Hermann Muller (1948).
Two important currently used antimalarial drugs are derived from plants whose medicinal values had been noted for centuries: artemisinin from the Qinghao plant (Artemisia annua L, China, 4th century) and quinine from the cinchona tree (South America, 17th century).

Insecticide-treated bed nets decreased the mortality of children aged 1-11 months in a trial in western Kenya in 1997-1999.
A survey in Southeast Asia in 1999-2000 showed that of 104 shop-bought samples purportedly containing the antimalarial drug artesunate, 38% contained no artesunate.

The average cost for potentially life-saving treatments of malaria are estimated to be US$0.13 for chloroquine, US$0.14 for sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, and US$2.68 for a 7-day course of quinine.

Awareness   Through   Compassion