In addition the parasite which causes the clinical symptoms is becoming increasingly resistant to the drugs used to treat it. For example a cheap and once effective drug called chloroquine is now useless in large parts of the world. Even more worrying is the fact that there are few new drugs to take the place of chloroquine. New, radical approaches are needed to control the disease, to try to get one step ahead, or at least prevent the situation deteriorating even further. These measures will need to be at many levels, from basic research, through a better application of current knowledge, to more effective implementation of existing control strategies.
Malaria is the most important parasitic disease.
Most of the infectious diseases with which we in the United Kingdom are familiar are caused by viruses and bacteria, but in large parts of the rest of the world parasites cause an additional massive health burden. The malaria parasite is a single cell, but despite this apparent simplicity it has a complex parasitic life style, spending part of its life in a mosquito and part in a larger animal. There are different sorts of malaria parasites that have adapted to life in a variety of animals, including lizards, birds, small mammals like rats and larger animals like humans. The female Anopheles mosquito must feed on blood in order to lay eggs. When it bites to take a meal of blood the infected mosquito passes on the parasite.