Plasmodium malaria is the source of insidious disease

One of the most serious diseases, which is also threatened with a pandemic, is malaria. A hundred years ago it took the lives of thousands of our compatriots - an effective medicine for malaria then did not exist. However, in the Soviet era, malaria was managed to be controlled and even reduced to single cases, which immediately fell under the scrutiny of medical workers.

The malarial plasmodium, which is the causative agent of the disease, can be of several kinds. All of them belong to the class of "plasmodia". In the human body can parasitize pathogens three-day and four-day, as well as tropical malaria. As a species, the causative agent of the ovale malaria, which occurs in Central Africa, is identified. All these species have similar cycles of development, a similar structure, only a few details are different.

The malarial parasite is carried with mosquitoes that infect humans through bites. In mosquito saliva, the pathogen is in the stage of sporozoite. Together with the blood flow, the malarious plasmodium enters the liver tissue, where an important stage of the life of the parasite is the schizogony. In humans, this period of plasmodial development coincides with the incubation period of the disease. In the liver, sporozoites develop schizonts - they increase in size and are actively divided into thousands of daughter cells. In this case, the infected cells are destroyed liver cells, which gives a certain symptomatology. After the stage of schizogony, parasites go to the blood, where the stage continues at the level of blood cells - erythrocytic schizogony. In this malarious plasmodium absorbs hemoglobin (its constituent protein globin) and continues asexual reproduction. Such a cycle in the blood can be repeated several times. This usually occurs every three to four days, which indicates the maturation of a new batch of plasmodia. Gem, which remains from hemoglobin, is itself a strong poison. When the erythrocyte bursts and the malarious plasmodium leaves into the blood, then with it comes out and free gem. At this time, the person, the carrier of the parasite, feels the attacks of malarial fever. The heaviest sign is the high temperature. At this stage a mosquito is usually infected from a sick person and becomes a carrier of the disease. Immature malarial plasmodium enters the stomach of the mosquito, it ripens, multiplies and is introduced under the gastric epithelium. Here the zygote increases and divides. At the end of the cycle, it bursts and spreads blood to all organs and tissues. Most of all, it accumulates in the saliva, which the mosquito infects a new victim - a person. Thus, it is clear that man is only an intermediate host for plasmodia, since reproduction occurs precisely in a mosquito, which is the ultimate host.

In humans, malaria is manifested by high fever and excessive sweating. The febrile state lasts from six to eight hours, the patient experiences thirst, a feeling of heat, an aching in the muscles. Fever is dangerous with high temperature indices - up to forty-one degrees (and at forty-two in the human body protein is folded and death occurs). This is the body's response to the release of toxins as a result of the plasmodial activity and release of the heme. In connection with the three-four-day plasmodium cycle, the temperature also jumps in accordance with the period. If there was repeated damage, then the high temperature keeps constantly - this is the most dangerous stage. Usually the body quickly begins to produce antibodies.

The most dangerous is tropical malaria for the inhabitants of non-African continents - they are much harder to tolerate the disease because of the lack of a resistance mechanism, which the African is well-established.

In order not to become infected with malaria, it is necessary to avoid mosquito bites, not to be near wet areas, swamps, forest lakes, to take mechanical (nets) and chemical means (creams, sprays) to protect against mosquitoes.