What is Malaria?
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious
disease of humans and other animals caused by parasitic protozoans (a group of
single-celled microorganisms) belonging to the Plasmodium type.Malaria
causes symptoms that typically include fever, fatigue, vomiting, and headaches.
In severe cases it can cause yellow skin, seizures, coma, or death.Symptoms
usually begin ten to fifteen days after being bitten. If not properly treated,
people may have recurrences of the disease months later. In those who have recently
survived an infection, reinfection usually causes milder symptoms. This partial
resistance disappears over months to years if the person has no continuing
exposure to malaria.
The disease is most commonly transmitted by an
infected female Anopheles mosquito. The mosquito bite introduces the parasites from the mosquito's saliva into
a person's blood.The risk of disease can be reduced by preventing mosquito
bites by using mosquito nets
and insect
repellents, or with mosquito-control measures such as spraying insecticides and draining
standing water.
New
Discovery:
“Prevention is better than
cure.”
As said
above, scientists are trying to prevent the spread of disease from one to
another through mosquitoes. They found a gene which will stop the transmission
of malaria through 99.5% of their offspring. They introduced this
malaria-blocking genes into the mosquitoes and found good results. They use
this mosquitoes to solve the purpose. The genes from this mosquitoes will pass
to other mosquitoes through progeny which will totally eliminate the total
transmission of disease to human beings.