The ongoing humanitarian crisis in Venezuela is accelerating the re-emergence of vector-borne diseases such as malaria, Chagas disease, dengue, and Zika virus, and threatens to jeopardise public health gains in the country ...
7 hours ago
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Languages that involve "clicks" are relatively rare worldwide but are spoken by several groups in Africa. The Khoisan language family includes a handful of these click languages, spoken by hunter-gatherer groups in southern ...
Feb 18, 2019
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Around the world, vaccines are in retreat, shunned by populations who, for the most part, have never been exposed to the diseases that blighted or shortened the lives of their grandparents' generation. But with the possible ...
Feb 15, 2019
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"Spit here, please."
Feb 12, 2019
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Researchers at the Institute for Molecular Engineering at the University of Chicago have developed an innovative new system for delivering a malaria vaccine that shows promise in its effectiveness. By developing a vaccine ...
Feb 04, 2019
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Early research on a new approach to protecting against malaria is offering promising, potentially long-lasting results against the persistent parasite that sickens hundreds of millions people each year.
Jan 23, 2019
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Artemisinin is derived from the leaves and flowers of the annual mugwort (Artemisia annua), and has been used in traditional Chinese medicine for centuries. Chinese researcher Tu Youyou recently tested its effectiveness, ...
Jan 30, 2019
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Around the world 4.2 million people die every year within 30 days after surgery—with half of these deaths occurring in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs), a new study reveals.
Jan 31, 2019
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Deadly, drug-resistant tuberculosis—as lethal as Ebola and tough to treat in even the best hospitals—is a "blinking red" worldwide threat, the head of a global health fund warned in an interview with AFP.
Feb 07, 2019
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The mosquito Aedes aegypti is the main transmission vector of dengue, Zika, yellow fever and chikungunya in Brazil. It is highly adapted to urban environments and rarely found in forested areas. The mosquito Anopheles cruzii ...
Jan 23, 2019
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Training community health workers to perform verbal autopsy interviews captured more accurate and complete data about the number and causes of deaths in a rural sub-county of Uganda than current health facility-dependent ...
Feb 13, 2019
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Looking back, Otto remembers struggling to breathe when he was as young as four. Exertion would make him cough, and the coughing fits would go on and on. Growing up in a family of eight children in a village in northern Uganda, ...
Feb 12, 2019
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Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said Sunday that excellent basic healthcare that would prevent easily treatable but deadly conditions was achievable even in Africa's poorest nations.
Feb 10, 2019
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As mouse geneticists, we spend a lot of time waiting for mice to make more mice. Their small size, ease of care and willingness to mate have made mice the "mammal of choice" for scientists for more than a century. Indeed, ...
Jan 24, 2019
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All women exposed to high levels of DDT are at increased risk for breast cancer through age 54, but the timing of cancer risk depends on when they were first exposed, according to a new study published today in the Journal ...
Feb 13, 2019
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Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases progressing to coma or death. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including much of Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
Five species of Plasmodium can infect and be transmitted by humans. Severe disease is largely caused by Plasmodium falciparum while the disease caused by Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale, and Plasmodium malariae is generally a milder disease that is rarely fatal. Plasmodium knowlesi is a zoonosis that causes malaria in macaques but can also infect humans.
Malaria transmission can be reduced by preventing mosquito bites by distribution of mosquito nets and insect repellents, or by mosquito-control measures such as spraying insecticides and draining standing water (where mosquitoes breed). Despite a clear need, no vaccine offering a high level of protection currently exists. Efforts to develop one are ongoing. A number of medications are also available to prevent malaria in travelers to malaria-endemic countries (prophylaxis).
A variety of antimalarial medications are available. Severe malaria is treated with intravenous or intramuscular quinine or, since the mid-2000s, the artemisinin derivative artesunate, which is superior to quinine in both children and adults. Resistance has developed to several antimalarial drugs, most notably chloroquine.
There were an estimated 225 million cases of malaria worldwide in 2009. An estimated 655,000 people died from malaria in 2010, a 5% decrease from the 781,000 who died in 2009 according to the World Health Organization's 2011 World Malaria Report, accounting for 2.23% of deaths worldwide. Ninety percent of malaria-related deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, with ~60% of deaths being young children under the age of five. Plasmodium falciparum, the most severe form of malaria, is responsible for the vast majority of deaths associated with the disease. Malaria is commonly associated with poverty, and can indeed be a cause of poverty and a major hindrance to economic development.
This text uses material from Wikipedia licensed under CC BY-SA
