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| Malaria is caused by the Plasmodium parasite, which is transmitted
from person to person via the bites of an infected anopheles mosquito.
These mosquitoes’ feed on humans during the night. Malaria is serious and sometimes fatal especially to people without immunity against Plasmodium. In the human body, the parasites quickly multiply in the liver, and then infect red blood cells, causing the cells to burst out. Malaria can quickly become life threatening by disrupting the blood supply to vital organs, particularly the brain. Symptoms of malaria can include high fever, shaking, chills, flu-like illness, headache, dizziness, sore skin, aching joints, diarrhea, vomiting, swollen spleen and can lead to coma. First symptoms usually appear between ten and fifteen days after a single mosquito bite. 40% of the world's population are at risk of contracting malaria in over 100 countries. Each year there are yo to 500 million clinical cases of Malaria and 3,000 deaths per day of children under five years of age, yet malaria is preventable and curable. Drive Against Malaria's policy is to give away long lasting mosquito nets to children under five and pregnant woman in the poorest communities of Africa. |