Oriskany Central School-Oriskany, New York Malaria Malaria is a disease caused by parasites. This disease infects between three hundred and five hundred million people each year, and between one and a half and two and a half million of them die from it. Most children under the age of five inflicted with the parasite die. Only sixty, of the three hundred and eighty species of Anopheles, are capable of carrying the parasite.
High altitudes tend to have less problems with malaria.
The pathway of the parasite inside the human starts with the mosquito. The anticoagulant has sporozoites within them that are manufactured in the salivary glands of the mosquito. When the sporozoites enter the bloodstream, before any symptoms can be noticed, they must reach the liver. When in the liver, they penetrate the liver cells, known as hepatocytes. After multiplying within the liver, the parasite returns to the blood stream, where it can start wrecking havoc.