QUESTION Do people need to receive blood if they get malaria? ANSWER Usually not. Most cases of malaria are uncomplicated and are treated using oral antibiotics. However, if the disease progresses sufficiently and the patient is not promptly treated, it can become more severe. This is particularly true for infection with Plasmodium falciparum malaria, which can lead to impaired … [Read more...]
Malaria Infection
QUESTION How can you get infected with malaria? ANSWER Malaria is transmitted directly via the bite of an infected mosquito. Only certain female mosquitoes, of the genus Anopheles, can carry malaria. The mosquito picks up the malaria parasite (there are five different types of malaria that infect humans, though all are transmitted in exactly the same way) when it feeds on the blood of an … [Read more...]
How Does One Contract Malaria?
QUESTION How to get malaria? ANSWER Malaria is caused by a parasite called Plasmodium, which is transmitted via the bites of infected mosquitoes. In the human body, the parasites multiply in the liver, and then infect red blood cells. Usually, people get malaria by being bitten by an infective female Anopheles mosquito. Only Anopheles mosquitoes can transmit malaria and they must have … [Read more...]
Person to Person Malaria Transmission
QUESTION: If someone had malaria but they don't have it any more can they give it to someone else? ANSWER: Regardless of whether a person is still infected with malaria or not, malaria can almost never be transmitted directly from one person to another. Normally, malaria is only transmitted via infected mosquitoes; so, a mosquito has to bite an infected person, and then bite another … [Read more...]
Does malaria spread from a person to another?
QUESTION: Can malaria spread from one person to another? ANSWER: Usually, no. In most cases, the malaria parasite has to first pass from a human host into a mosquito as the mosquito takes a blood meal, and then from the mosquito into another human via the mosquito's saliva. This severely limits the amount of person-to-person transmission that exists. In fact, the only mechanisms for … [Read more...]