Introduction Malaria is a vector-borne disease and is rarely transmitted through infected blood. The disease currently exists in southern Africa and Asia. In Greece malaria was eradicated in 1974; since then in our country sporadic cases have been recorded related…
Mosquito surveillance for fighting malaria
Introduction Insect surveillance for fighting insect-borne diseases, such as malaria, is of paramount importance. It is well known that the anopheline mosquitoes are the exclusive vectors of malaria and, therefore, insect surveillance against malaria is aimed at: recording the mosquito…
Indoor residual spraying (IRS) for fighting malaria
Introduction Malaria is considered world-wide to be the most significant mosquito-borne disease transmitted by mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles (Culicidae: Anophelinae). One of the principal methods that the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends for combating malaria is indoor residual spraying…
Malaria world-wide
Malaria is a common and life-threatening disease in many tropical and subtropical areas, where climatic factors (temperature, humidity and rainfall) influence malaria transmission. Malaria causes 350–500 million infections world-wide and approximately 1 million deaths annually. According to the…
The HCDCP’s action plan 2012-2015 to battle malaria
During the summer period of 2011, 40 incidents of malaria were reported in Greece, caused by Plasmodium vivax with signs of ‘in-country transmission’ (i.e. in individuals that had not come from malaria-endemic regions nor traveled to such countries). The majority…
Control of malaria and West Nile virus vectors
Numerous medically important parasites and pathogens, such as viruses, bacteria, protists and nematode worms, that cause serious diseases in humans are transmitted by mosquitoes. Malaria, a disease caused by parasitic protists belonging to the genus Plasmodium, and West Nile virus…
The role of vaccine in the prevention of malaria
The first attempts in developing a malaria vaccine After the discovery of malaria Plasmodium by the French military surgeon Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran in 1880 [1, 2], Angelo Celli, an Italian physician and zoologist, made the first attempt at immunization…
The laboratory diagnosis of malaria
Apart from the importance of the clinical diagnosis of malaria, the common clinical symptoms cause diagnostic problems and reinforce the need for the laboratory confirmation. This will take place mostly with the following laboratory methods Microscopic examination of the peripheral…
Malaria
Malaria (from the Italian mala aria, which means bad air, thought to be associated with the vapors over swamps and marshlands) is an infectious febrile disease caused by the protozoan parasite Plasmodium and transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes, which are more…
Malaria: clinical picture, diagnosis and therapy
The recent autochthonous cases of malaria in Laconia show the increased risk of recurrence of malaria in our country. Thus a clinical doctor should be able to diagnose and treat malaria promptly in order to break the transmission chain of…