Mission Statement:
Malaria is an infectious disease that is caused by the Plasmodium parasite. It is transmitted to humans by female Anopheles mosquitoes that are born in water. If the mosquito is born in contaminated water with the parasite, the parasite develops inside the mosquito until it bites a human, transmitting the parasite. Mosquitoes can also be infective if they had a previous bloodmeal from an person with malaria. By biting a person, an infected mosquito transmits the disease. Once inside the human, the parasite targets the humans red blood cells, causing them to become sick with symptoms such as shaking chills, high fevers, and headaches. These symptoms can develop into major impacts such as multi-organ failure for adults and severe anemia, respiratory distress, and cerebral malaria for children. Malaria may even lead to death if not treated. Malaria transmission is common in places with humid climates like Africa or South Asia. About half of the world's population lives in areas of risk. In the US, about 2,000 cases are diagnosed each year. In 2018, there were 228 million cases worldwide. The same year, 405,000 people died. This was an improvement from 2016, when there were 445,000 deaths worldwide. If modeled we could find weak points in the complex adaptive system of this disease and target those weak points to limit or even eradicate this disease across the world.
Caption:
The Plasmodium parasite lifecycle involves two hosts, mosquitos and humans. By biting a human host, a malaria-infected female Anopheles mosquito starts the cycle. By biting the human, the mosquito injects sporozoites, a form of the malaria parasite, into their bloodstream. Then, the sporozoites infect the liver cells. Inside the liver cells, the sporozoites mature into schizonts. The schizonts burst, releasing merozoites. After this process, the parasites undergo asexual multiplication in the blood cells. The parasites in the blood stage are the cause of malaria symptoms.
The parasite targets the human’s red blood cells, causing them to become sick with symptoms such as shaking chills, high fevers, and headaches. These symptoms may develop into major impacts such as multi-organ failure for adults, severe anemia (loss of blood cells), and respiratory distress. Malaria may even lead to death if not treated.
The merozoites continue their cycle by invading more red cells and become trophozoites. Some trophozoites develop into schizonts and rupture once again, releasing more merozoites. The other ones turn into gametocytes. These are ingested by another Anopheles mosquito during a bloodmeal from an infected person. The parasite multiplies inside the mosquito. This is called the Sporogonic cycle. Male and female gametocytes mate in the mosquitos stomach, creating zygotes. The zygotes become ookinetes, which turn into oocysts. The oocysts grow and release sporozoites. The sporozoites travel to the mosquitos salivary glands, which allows the mosquito to inject sporozoites into the human host.