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Malaria in the mosquito

Published on May 29, 2011   51 min

A selection of talks on Infectious Diseases

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0:00
My name is Doctor Peter Billingsley. I'm a Senior Director of Quality Systems and Entomology at a company called Sanaria in Rockville, Maryland. I'm going to talk to you about Malaria in the mosquito.
0:15
Malaria is one of the world's foremost killers. Every year approximately one million children die of the disease, about 250 million people become ill with malaria, and at least $12 billion are lost annually in economic activity in terms of gross domestic product due just to malaria in Africa alone. In addition, many thousands of international travelers fall ill to Malaria every year.
0:43
Of The several malaria parasites that infect humans, Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for more deaths than any of the others. Indeed, it is responsible for more deaths in children in the world than any other single infectious agent. Today alone, as you're listening to this seminar, about 3 to 5 thousand children will die of Malaria, about 1 to 3 million in the coming in year.
1:08
This map shows the distribution of Malaria across the world. Malaria is found in areas where conditions allow the parasite to multiply within the vector, where the temperature and humidity conditions are suitable for the persistence of mosquito populations. This means that the parasite is restricted to tropical and subtropical areas at altitudes below 1500 meters. Its distribution can, therefore, be affected by climate changes, especially global warming and large population movements. Plasmodium falciparum, which is the major killing species of Malaria, and Plasmodium malariae are accounted in all these shaded areas that you see here. Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium ovale are also common across Sub-Saharan Africa. Plasmodium ovale and many other areas for Plasmodium vivax. And more recently, a parasite called Plasmodium knowlesi has begun to emerge as a zoonotic disease, that is, a disease coming animals in Malaysia.