File:Malaria global limits 2007.jpg

Global limits and endemicity of P. falciparum in 2007

The land area was defined as no risk (light grey), unstable risk (medium grey areas, where PfAPI <0.1‰ PA), and stable risk (where PfAPI >0.1‰ PA) [40] with endemicity (PfPR in the 2- up to 10-year age group, PfPR2–10) displayed as a continuum of yellow to red between 0% and 100%.

The dashed lines separate the Americas, Africa+, and the CSE Asia region, respectively, from left to right.

The seven countries with thick blue borders have very low P. falciparum burden and reliable national health information systems.

"Malaria is a major global public-health problem. Nearly half the world's population is at risk of malaria, and Plasmodium falciparum malaria—the deadliest form of the disease—causes about one million deaths each year. Malaria is a parasitic disease that is transmitted to people through the bite of an infected mosquito. These insects inject a parasitic form known as sporozoites into people, where they replicate briefly inside liver cells. The liver cells then release merozoites (another parasitic form), which invade red blood cells. Here, the merozoites replicate rapidly before bursting out and infecting more red blood cells. This increase in the parasitic burden causes malaria's characteristic symptoms—debilitating and recurring fevers and chills. Infected red blood cells also release gametocytes, which infect mosquitoes when they take a blood meal. In the mosquito, the gametocytes multiply and develop into sporozoites, thus completing the parasite's life cycle. Malaria can be prevented by controlling the mosquitoes that spread the parasite and by avoiding mosquito bites. Effective treatment with antimalarial drugs also helps to reduce malaria transmission."

Figure 2. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000290.g002

Journal.pmed.1000290.g002.png

http://www.plosmedicine.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pmed.1000290

Hay SI, Okiro EA, Gething PW, Patil AP, Tatem AJ, et al. (2010) Estimating the Global Clinical Burden of Plasmodium falciparum Malaria in 2007. PLoS Med 7(6): e1000290.

© 2010 Hay et al. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.