QUESTION: How do you get malaria? ANSWER: Malaria is caused by parasites called Plasmodium, of which different species cause different types of malaria. A person gets malaria when they are bitten by certain female mosquitoes (of the species Anopheles) that carry Plasmodium parasites in their saliva. The mosquitoes themselves pick up the parasite by feeding on the blood of people already … [Read more...]
Is malaria caused by a dietary absence?
QUESTION: Is malaria caused by the absence of one of the following in diet: bacteria, virus, fungi, protozoa? ANSWER: If I understand your question correctly, you are asking if malaria is caused by the absence of a particular organism from a person's diet—in fact, malaria is caused by a protozoan, but infection is not linked to a person's diet. Instead, people are infected with the … [Read more...]
Causes of Malaria
QUESTION: What causes malaria? ANSWER: Malaria is a disease caused by a parasitic single-celled animal known as Plasmodium. There are different species of Plasmodium, which cause different kinds of malaria. The main types which infect humans are P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale and P. malariae. The parasite is transmitted by certain species of mosquito; the parasite lives in the human … [Read more...]
What is malaria?
QUESTION: What is malaria? ANSWER: To answer your question, I have copied below the answer to an earlier post, published on the 1st of May, 2011, which also asked "What is malaria?": Malaria is a disease caused by parasites of the genus Plasmodium. Transmitted by mosquitoes, there are several different kinds of malaria distributed throughout the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the … [Read more...]
What is malaria?
QUESTION: What is malaria? ANSWER: Malaria is a disease caused by parasites of the genus Plasmodium. Transmitted by mosquitoes, there are several different kinds of malaria distributed throughout the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world, causing somewhere between 300-500 million cases of disease each year, and as many as 1 million deaths. In fact, malaria is one of the biggest … [Read more...]
How does malaria spread?
QUESTION: How does malaria spread? ANSWER: Malaria is a vector-borne disease; this means that it has to be spread through a "vector" species, which in this case are female mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles. The female mosquito needs to feed on blood in order to produce eggs; most species lay eggs every 2-3 days, which means each female mosquito needs to take very regular blood … [Read more...]
What is malaria? What Causes Malaria?
QUESTIONS: What is malaria? What causes malaria? ANSWER: I have copied below the text from an earlier question, also asking about the causes of malaria and explaining what it is: Malaria is a disease caused by a parasitic single-celled animal known as Plasmodium. There are different species of Plasmodium, which cause different kinds of malaria. The main types which infect humans … [Read more...]
What is Malaria?
QUESTION: What is malaria? ANSWER: Malaria is a disease caused by parasites of the genus Plasmodium. Transmitted by mosquitoes, there are several different kinds of malaria distributed throughout the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world, causing somewhere between 300-500 million cases of disease each year, and as many as 1 million deaths. In fact, malaria is one of the biggest … [Read more...]
How long has malaria existed?
QUESTION: How long has malaria been going on? ANSWER: The answer to your question depends on the kind of malaria as well as how exactly you define 'malaria'. The parasites which cause all forms of malaria, in humans as well as other mammals and birds, belong to a group called Plasmodium; scientists believe, based on genetic information, that this genus evolved around 130 million years … [Read more...]