What Is Malaria

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Malaria Global Distribution
Malaria has been existing since the ancient time, but until late 1800s, people discovered that mosquitoes transmit malaria. Without Anopheles, Plasmodium cannot complete their growth and cannot infect human by itself. Because Anopheles mosquitoes are the carrier of malaria parasites basically, people who live in the countries where Anopheles presents are at risk for malaria. Packard, in his book, states that malaria is a tropical disease. Sadly, that malaria occurs in the tropical countries which are mostly developing countries such as: Africa, Asia, South America. Malaria occurred in some other areas in the past, but the disease has been eliminated. Malaria comes from the Italian “mal’aria” which means “bad air”. It indicates the mosquito habitat where the disease is found. The mosquito species carry malaria parasite can be found in the humid, rainfall areas. Stagnant waters, puddles, channels, streams are perfect shelters for the metamorphosis from mosquito larvae to adult stage. Therefore, mosquitoes need environmental, climate factors to grow and become the host for malaria parasite. Sah, in her book, described the how people, especially children in rural African areas suffer from Malaria. The poor conditions, lacking of knowledge in rural areas make the situation become worse. That is the reason why the mortality rate of malaria is high in developing countries. Malaria also occurs in developed countries, but vector control is effective, so people rarely die.

Table 1. Malaria in Asia and Americas versus Africa
According to Filipino post (2013), malaria causes 655,000 deaths in 2010. In Africa, a person can be bite by the mosquitoes every day. Approximately 90% of malaria deaths occur in Africa. Ma...

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...l 25 ever year. In that day, the report and statistics about the combat against the human long term enemy is shown. People with their effort try to eliminate the mosquitoes spread the fatal diseases out. Mosquitoes in human aspect, is the bloodthirsty and annoying insects which is also pests carry the deadly diseases. In the lastest report, malaria kills 660 000 lives in 2013. Although new treatments, prevention, or vector controls show positive results; people still die. There is a huge gap between treatment and prevention in rich and poor countries. New treatments and preventions cannot reach rural and poor people. Some people still believe in the benefit of mosquitoes in maintaining the balance in the ecosystem. In contrast, if we look on the real picture how mosquitoes kill people throughout human history, we understand how people try to get rid of them forever.

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