Not Yet There

Five hundred thousand African children die of malaria each year, a number equivalent to the population of UK city, Liverpool. The infection, which is spread by mosquitos carrying the malaria parasite – one kind of the parasite is seen here in purple bursting through a mosquito’s gut wall – particularly threatens children and pregnant women. Whether a victim survives the disease can depend on which of the five parasite species infects them. Brain-targeting Plasmodium falciparum is the deadliest but rarest species, and P. vivax the commonest – Abraham Lincoln being one famous sufferer. This variation has prompted researchers to stress the importance of triaging patients early into different at-risk categories so that targeted treatment can be given. Such public health programmes, coupled to sanitation measures like draining stagnant water where mosquitos breed, and distributing mosquito nets, have halved the number of deaths from malaria between 2001 and 2013.

Written by Tristan Farrow

Tristan Farrow

Writer

British Science Association Media Fellow. He holds a degree in quantum physics from the University of Cambridge and a Research Fellowship in quantum effects in biology.

• Image by National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
• National Institutes of Health, USA
• Originally published under a Creative Commons Licence (BY 4.0)
• Research published in PLOS Medicine, August 2014