Malaria has long been a global scourge that drains the lives and finances of villages and whole countries every year, afflicting nearly half a billion people with acute disease. This is a monumental undertaking and a revolutionary approach to fighting this disease. Malaria is an infection caused by a protozoan parasite from the genus Plasmodium, of which four separate species are known to infect humans.
Mosquitoes ingest the parasite when they draw blood from an infected person.
The parasite lives and grows inside the mosquito and is then spread to other people whenever the mosquito takes another blood meal. The disease is often painful and sometimes deadly. Once a person is infected, the parasite attacks the liver and destroys the red blood cells, causing them to stick to the sides of the blood vessels where they eventually block the capillaries to the brain and other organs. If not treated promptly, severe infection may lead to coma, anemia, renal failure, convulsions, and death. Some medications are available to treat the malaria infection, but the parasites are now increasingly resistant to current drug therapies.