Plasmodium malariae is a protozoan parasite that causes malaria in humans. It is transmitted via the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. Malaria infects hundreds of millions of people annually and kills over a million people, mostly young children. P. malariae has a multi-stage lifecycle involving human and mosquito hosts. Diagnosis involves microscopic examination of blood smears to detect the parasite. Common symptoms include fever, chills, and flu-like illness. Treatment options include drugs like chloroquine, atovaquone/proguanil, and prevention involves mosquito repellents and bed nets.
3. Introduction
• Malaria is caused by species of Plasmodium.
• Discovered by Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran (1880)
• 500 million people will be infected with malaria worldwide
• widely found in sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Asia, and islands in the western
Pacific
4. • The genus Plasmodium contains over 200 species at least 11
species infect humans
• Most important are:
Plasmodium falciparum
Plasmodium malariae
Plasmodium ovale
Plasmodium vivax
Plasmodium knowlesi
• Plasmodium parasites are highly specific with female Anopheles
mosquitoes
5. EPIDEMOLOGY
• Around 300-500 million clinical cases of malaria are reported every
year, of which more than a million die of severe and complicated cases
of malaria.
• Malaria is known to kill one child every 30 sec, 3000 children per day
under the age of 5 years.
6.
7. Vector
• Female mosquitos of genus Anopheles are primary hosts and
transmission vectors.
• There are approximately 460 recognized species
• Over 100 can transmit human malaria
• Only 30–40 commonly transmit parasites of the genus Plasmodium
• Anopheles gambiae is one of the best known which transmits
Plasmodium falciparum
9. • Only female mosquitoes feed on blood while the males feed on
plant nectar and do not transmit the disease.
• The females of Anopheles genus prefer to feed at night
• They start searching for a meal at dusk and continue throughout
the night until they take a meal
10. MOSQUITOES AND MALARIA
The spread of malaria depends on the life cycle of the mosquito.
•Adult mosquitoes lay their eggs on water.
•The eggs hatch to become larvae and then pupae, before turning
into adults.
•Adult females mosquitoes only live 2 to 4 weeks.
•So you can reduce malaria by attacking any of these four stages of
the mosquito
11. CHARACTERISTIC OF LIFE CYCLE
Intermediate host : human
Final host : mosquito
Infective stage : sporozoite
Infective way : mosquito bite skin of human
Parasitic position : liver and red blood cells
Transmitted stage : gametocytes
Schizogonic cycle in red cells : 48 hrs.
14. INCUBATION PERIOD
• Following the infective bite by the Anopheles mosquito a period of
time (the "incubation period") goes by before the first symptoms
appear.
• The incubation period in most cases varies from 7 to 30 days.
• The shorter periods are observed most frequently with P. falciparum
and the longer ones with P. malariae.
16. LABORATORY DIAGNOSIS
• Laboratory diagnosis of malaria is confirmed by the demonstration
of malarial parasites in the blood film under microscopic
examination.
• Thin film
• Thick film
• Thick smears have more quantity of blood in a smaller area, so that
the parasites are concentrated in this area, hence chances of
detection of malaria parasite are more in a thick smear
• Thin smears are less sensitive for detection of malaria parasites but
better for species identification
