A Conversation for Malaria

Question/s

Post 1

Titania (gone for lunch)

How does the parasite get into the mosquitoes? Are they born with it? Infected by other mosquitoes?smiley - huh


Question/s

Post 2

Wand'rin star

Only the females carry it.
They suck it up when taking blood from an infected person.smiley - star


Question/s

Post 3

Felonious Monk - h2g2s very own Bogeyman

I suppose it's a chicken and egg situation: it has to be in the human for a mozzie to suck it up, but that mozzie got it from an infected human....
It would be very interestign to chart the evolutionary biology of Plasmodium for that very reason. I suspect that Plasmodium started off as a parasite of the mozzie intially, then 'jumped ship' when mozzies started biting other creatures.


Question/s

Post 4

Titania (gone for lunch)

Aha - so, in theory, this could mean that any European country could have a minor local outbreak of malaria if there happened to be a malaria-infected person around, and if a mosquito were to suck blood from said person?


Question/s

Post 5

Felonious Monk - h2g2s very own Bogeyman

It would have to be an Anopheles mosquito, and there aren't too many of these around in Europe. Also there are lots of other environmental factors involed which limit the disease's spread in temperate climates.
Vivax malaria is likely to be a problem in Europe if the climate heats up.


Question/s

Post 6

Titania (gone for lunch)

We have 5 sorts of Anopheles mosquitos here in Sweden - although the article where I read that mentions that mosquitos arriving to Europe by aircraft are more likely to be a risk


Question/s

Post 7

Felonious Monk - h2g2s very own Bogeyman

Let's hope they stay there, then! smiley - winkeye
Seriously, the mild winters help the mosquitos to spread, and also high temperatures help the parasite to mature. It looks like temperature is a major factor in causing Plasmodium to change from one form to another in the mosquito's gut. As we have a body temperature of 37 C, this effect is wholly dependent upon how hot it gets in the world of the mosquito.


Question/s

Post 8

Orcus

So are we the only possible secondary host for Plasmodium or can other animals bitten by the mozzers get infected too?
I would presume so but it is an interesting question. Surely the mosquitoes have other animals as sources of food too.


Question/s

Post 9

Felonious Monk - h2g2s very own Bogeyman

All sorts of animals get malaria; birds, lizards, you name it. I think that malaria tends to be animal-species specific, though.
Generally, animal populations with persistent endemic malaria tend to develop a degree of immunity. A probable good example of this working in humans is the case of the Marsh Arabs. When there was an uprising in Iraq after the Gulf war, many Iraqis fled to the marshes, and were struck down by all sorts of diseases. I'll bet that one of these was malaria. The people who had lived there all their lives weren't affected by these diseases.


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