Malaria: Another Deadly Disease That Threatens Africa

Malaria has been a long time tropical disease that has ravaged the African continent before the white explorers landed on the shores of Africa. It took many of them to their untimely grave; hence they referred the continent to ‘The white man’s grave.'

Despite the amazing discovery of technology

, health care improvement and vaccines, malaria continues to kill hundreds of children and adults every year in Africa. The sickness is caused by a single-cell parasite called Plasmodium. Anopheles mosquitoes, usually females pick up the parasite from infected people when they bite. After bitten, the blood they obtained nurtures their eggs.

 

Inside the mosquito the parasites develop and reproduce. When the mosquito bites again, the parasites mix with its saliva and pass into the blood of the person being bitten. Africa’s fragile health care system and poverty have caused wide spread of the disease at a faster rate like the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS). Other factors which have escalated malaria in Africa, is the poor drainage system.

by Joel Savage