Malaria Falciparum: Microbiology, Host Response, Epidemiology and Treatment

Running head: MALARIA FALCIPARUM
Malaria Falciparum
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Introduction
Malaria is counted as one of the most killer disease in the world and every year a huge
number of people is died due to the outbreak of this disease. It is assumed that. Almost 250
million people in this world has been infected by this disease every year and along with this,
World Health Organization (WHO) also declared that every year 800,000 people die due to the
malaria disease. The number also depict that a child is dying in every 45 seconds by malaria
infection. Malaria is completely a vector-borne disease and the reason behind this disease is a
single-celled protozoan parasite named Plasmodium and the female mosquitoes are the carriers
of this parasites. Five species of the plasmodium family can cause the disease malaria in the
human body. Plasmodium falciparum or P.falciparum is one of the dominant species of this
family which can be a cause for this disease. The disease has a common flu like symptoms that is
headache, vomiting, shivering, fever. However, due to such common symptoms, it is often
observed that, the disease cannot be diagnosed in a proper way. Due to this, WHO recommended
that, before starting the treatment of malaria, all the cases should be judged in a proper way to be
confirm about the disease ( WHO 2018). The disease is mainly transmitted by the female
mosquitoes of certain species of mosquitoes that is anopheles mosquitoes. The female of this
species can transmit malaria disease as they are capable of sucking blood from the human bodies
as they require high levels of protein in their meals due to development of the eggs. They sucks
the human blood as they are attracted to the human body by vision and smell. While sucking the
blood, the mosquitoes transfers their saliva and due to the anti-clotting property of the saliva the
sucked blood is not clotted. After that, the life cycle of the parasites take place inside the human
body. In this essay, the microbiology of the malaria falciparum, the host response against the

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disease, epidemiology of the disease and current and future treatment of the disease are described
under a few points in a brief manner.
Microbiology of the Disease
Malaria is the disease that is caused by the single celled protozoan parasite Plasmodium.
There are five species that can cause the disease and they are Plasmodium falciparum,
Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale, Plasmodium malaria and Plasmodium knowlesi. Among
the five sub types, the malaria caused by the Plasmodium falciparum, is referred to as malaria
falciparum. The parasite enters the human body by the mosquito bites. When the female
anopheles mosquito bites a human being in order to sucks the blood, the process of infection is
started. When the mosquito bites a human being, the female mosquito transfers its saliva into the
human body. The saliva of the mosquitoes contains a special type of anti-clotting element and as
a result the blood is not clotted (Angchaisuksiri 2014). The Plasmodium parasite in their
complex life style, completes the sexual and asexual reproduction. The sexual reproduction
takes place in the body of the mosquito and on the other hand the, asexual reproduction is
occurred in the red blood cells and liver cells of the human body. The whole life cycle of a
plasmodium life cycle is dependent on two hosts When an infected female anopheles mosquitoes
bite a human being, the sporozoites of the parasites are transferred to the body of the human.
After entering into the blood stream of the human being, they are transferred into the hepatic
cells of the human body within 30 minutes (CDC 2019). The sporozoites survive in the human
body as they are fed on the cells and gradually grow to enter the next stage of their life cycle that
is formation of schizonts. After that, within the 5-8 days, the schizonts goes through the process
of cell cycle and divides in a rapid manner. After the cellular multiplication, thousands of
merozoites are produced. Theses merozoites then invade into the blood stream of the human

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being and in the blood stream they invade the red blood cells of the body. However, during this
time, when the parasite is present in the liver of the human body, the person has no symptoms of
any disease and the person don’t even feel any sickness. Therefore, in the host body, the parasite
is not destroyed by the antibodies of host’s body. After invading the RBC, the merozoites is
converted into trophozoites and finally into the merozoites that may contain up to 32 merozoites.
After the 2-3 days of the rupture of the RBC, the released merozoites from that RBC, comes into
the blood stream of the human body. After that, these the uninfected RBCs are also infected by
those merozoites as they invade new RBCs and the process is again repeated. During the
rupturing of the RBCs, the toxins produced by the merozoites are released and it is assumed that,
this toxins stimulate the immune system of the host and a complex immune response is initiated
in the body of the host. Due to this toxic response, symptoms like fever, sweating can be
observed. The blood stage of the parasite is responsible for the clinical manifestation of the
disease (World Health Organization 2019). The trophozoites are converted into female and male
gametocytes. The male gametocytes are called microgametocytes and on the other hand the
female gametocytes are called macro gametocytes. The sexual stages of the parasites are
continued by the activity of a female mosquitoes during their blood meal. When a female
mosquito sucks blood from an infected person, the merozoites are also transferred into the body
of the mosquito and the converted merozoites then enter the stomach of the mosquito. The
parasites’ life cycle inside the mosquitos’ body is referred to as sporogonic cycle (Chen et al.
2016). In the stomach, the gametocytes form gametes. After the fertilization, the formation of
the zygotes takes place. After 24 hours of the zygote formation, motile ookinetes are formed
from the newly formed zygotes and those ookinetes are burrowed into the wall of the stomach.
After that, ookinetes are transformed into oocysts and each of the oocysts produces 1000