MALARIA Research Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

MALARIA - Research Paper Example The disease was first effectively managed from the early 17th Century following the understanding of Quinine by Jesuit Priests through their interaction with indigenous tribes of the New World. The cause of the disease remained unknown until 1880. That year Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, a French army surgeon, became the first person to propose that the disease was caused by organisms he had observed in malaria-infected blood. Further discoveries over the course of the Century yielded that the disease were caused by Plasmodium species and was spread by mosquitoes. During that period, other antimalarial treatments were discovered. From the 1960s onwards, there were global eradication efforts conducted mainly through outdoor and indoor spraying of insecticides by DDT and other insecticides to control mosquitoes and other pests. However, this had detrimental effects on the environment primarily on the climate and on local fauna and increased resistance from insecticides by mosquitoes. In 2014, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated that 1.2 billion people are at high risk of malaria. They also estimated that from 198 million malaria cases worldwide, the disease caused an estimated 584,000 deaths with Ninety percent of the deaths occurring in Africa (World Health Organization, 2014). Malaria in humans is caused by four Protozoan species: Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium malariae, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodium falciparum. Of the four species, the most common forms are P. vivax and P. falciparum with P. falciparum being the most deadly. P. falciparum contributes to 75% of reported cases and deaths and P. vivax around 20%. P. knowlesi causes malaria in primates. An infected female Anopheles mosquito is the primary host for the disease. On fertilization, female mosquitoes feed on blood to support egg development. By feeding on an infected person, the secondary host, the female mosquito is