Malaria is one of mankind’s oldest known killers, with
descriptions of the disease dating back almost 5000 years. Each
year, malaria causes 300-500 million infections, and up to 3
million deaths–about 5000 Africans die of the disease every day;
one child succumbs every 30 seconds. The disease is caused by a
number of species of the Plasmodium genus. (In humans, malaria
is almost always caused by one of four species: Plasmodium
vivax, Plasmodium ovale, Plasmodium falciparum, and Plasmodium
malariae, with P. falciparum causing the most severe disease).
Unlike many pathogens I discuss on here, Plasmodium is a
protozoan–a eukaroyte with a nucleus, like you and I. It also
has a very complex life cycle, going through different stages in
its mosquito and vertebrate host. (I presented a short overview
of this previously in this post on potential malarial vaccines).
Though vaccines may be available in the future, prevention today
is largely via control of the mosquito vectors using
insecticides and mosquito netting. H