Malaria In Cuba Essay

According to a 300 page report from the The American Association for World Health (AAWH), there was an increase in the number of Cubans who contracted water-borne diseases because the Cuban government was unable to acquire the U.S made chemicals needed to treat drinking water, as well as new replacement parts for the aging water supply system (AAWH, 1997: Intro). As a result, when visiting the Island, visitors are instructed to purchase and drink bottled water, a luxury many Cubans can not afford (Randal, 2000: 193). In addition, the embargo on American foodstuffs caused a food shortage which contributed to nutritional deficits in pregnant women and caused an outbreak of neuropathy in Cuban citizens (AAWH, 1997: Intro).

In the United States, many diseases like the flu are treated easily by available drugs administered by pharmacies. However, in third world countries like Africa, medical supply is not affordable in environments festered with contaminated water supply and lack of food sources. Sub-Saharan Africa is plagued by many diseases, but the most common disease is Malaria. Malaria is a type of disease that is spread by the female mosquito of the genus Anopheles. An individual will start to experience high fevers and chills. If left untreated, the individual could possibly die (Heyneman, 2014). Antimalarial drugs are a type of treatment that can counteract this disease. Doxycycline is an antimalarial drug that is commonly used, however its

Ninety percent of all malaria deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, which is the location and region of where this issue affects. In a concentrated effort to treat malaria since 2000, 700 million cases have been stopped in Africa, bringing the number of cases down by almost fifty percent. This pleasant news is the result of human interaction. Since the introduction of bed nets, malaria death rates have dropped by sixty percent, saving six million lives. All this progress has to be credited to the scientists who got notified by their respective countries when deaths constantly occur in a certain area through communication. Shortly after getting notified, the researchers travel to sub-Saharan Africa, which requires movement, to analyze the situation

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female mosquitoes. Malaria can cause diarrhea, fatigue, pain, and vomiting.Malaria affects more people in Colombia that the United States. Malaria is one of the most serious health problem in Colombia. A lot of people in Colombia are at risk for Malaria because 85%% of the Colombian rural territory is at an altitude less than 1,600 m above sea level, which is a condition suitable for malaria transmission. In Colombia from 1990 to 1991 the number of reported cases was 2,964,818. In the United States Malaria is not a high risk disease as it was eliminated in the 1950’s. Between 1957 and 2015, in the United States, 63 outbreaks

Several species can cause human malaria and most of these species have drug resistant making treatment approach highly dependable on the species that caused it. Multi-drug resistant Plasmodium falciparum malaria had been treated with many different, both single and combinations of drugs. The most common type that is known to be effective is the artemisinin-based combination therapy also known as ACT; a combination of artermisinin and its derivatives and longer-acting antimalarial drugs. Studies conducted by Pousibet-Puerto et al. shows the effectiveness of ACT treatment to those with uncomplicated malaria from Plasmodium falciparum compared to those getting the classic treatment, comparing the length of their hospital stays and their

The pandemic outbreak of malaria several decades ago, before the advent of the Millennium development goals (MDGs), claimed so much lives in Africa. This was greatly influenced by

Malaria is a preventable disease transmitted by a female anopheles mosquito that has a global annual death impact of over one million mainly concentrated in sub-Saharan Africa (Patricia Schlagenhauf-Lawlor, & Funk-Baumann, M., 2005, pg. 6)(1). Although malaria is almost unheard of in developed countries like the United States, in the early 1900s malaria was just as prevalent as it is in sub-Saharan Africa today. The United States has eradicated local malaria due to increased finances and physician led public health missions in the 1940’s in the form of the DDT campaign(Humphries, 2001, pg. 2). However, in underdeveloped countries mainly located in tropical areas, the death toll to malaria continues to rise due to challenges and barriers between accumulating hefty finances, adequate resources and delivering affective outreach programs( Jennifer Kates, Michaud, J., Wexler, A., Valentine, A., 2013)(3).

Malaria is an ancient disease. The name itself traces its origins to Medieval Italian: “mal aria” or bad air referred to a swampy area of Rome known as the Pontina that saw very high infection rates (Beltz, 2011). To this day, the disease continues to be one of the most important parasitic infections known to man. According to the World Health Organization, 3.4 million people may be considered at risk on a global scale and estimates indicate that there were 207 million cases in 2012 with 627,000 deaths (WHO, 2013). More than 85% of these cases occur on the continent of Africa as well as 90% of the deaths. In highly endemic regions, malaria is more of an issue of morbidity than mortality, although the majority of individuals may be parasitized at any given time only a minority exhibit severe symptoms (Marsh & Snow, 1997). Instead these countries are at a significant economic disadvantage due to ill workers, lack of tourism and company investments, not to mention the educational loss future generations also incur.

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) states that it is important to address Malaria because as earlier stated, it effects 3.2 billion people, which means that almost half of the world’s population is at risk. Malaria is also a huge cause of death worldwide because in developing countries with warm climates, it is hard for them to get the proper resources they need in order to cure the disease. Although it is hard to find someone with Malaria in the U.S., it is very common in warm developing countries mostly because that is where the Anopheles mosquitos thrive the best. Therefore, the main reason for Malaria is the lack of resources and knowledge from these developing countries. Because they are developing countries with little money, it is hard

Malaria kills approximately five hundred thousand people per year. Ninety percent of those deaths occur in the Saharan section of Africa. Although Approximate 3 billion people live in areas where they are at risk of contracting malaria in a total of 106 countries around the world. “There were an estimated 198 million malaria cases worldwide in 2013, mostly pregnant women and children”. (Unknown author, malarianomore.org, 2015) “There are about 10,000 malaria cases per year in Western Europe, and 1300-1500 in the united stated and ….In Saharan, Africa maternal malaria is associated with up to 200,000 estimated infant deaths yearly.” (Wikipedia, obtained 2015)

Since it was first discovered in 1880 by French army surgeon Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, Malaria has caused the suffering of millions each year. According to the World Health Organization It was estimated that in 2015 there were nearly 214 million cases of Malaria worldwide, half a million of which were lethal. Malaria is caused by a parasite which is transmitted through the bite of a mosquito. Although cases of Malaria are most common in the sub-Saharan Africa region, it has affected people on a global scale. Efforts to combat Malaria range from insecticide treated bed nets to indoor residual spraying. Although both methods are viable, they do not have to potential to eradicate Malaria. The most effective means of combating Malaria is through genetic modification of mosquitoes. By tinkering with the genes of the very creature who transmits the parasite, we can ultimately eliminate the disease before it even poses a threat.

Malaria is an important disease threatening people around the world, existing in all six World Health Organization (WHO) regions (World Health Organization [WHO], 2014). Relatively, the other distribution of this disease covering more than 100 countries in the tropical and subtropical climate region (Cullen & Arguin, 2014). According to WHO (2014), in 2013 there were at least 198 million cases of malaria that occurred globally around the world (estimate range between 124-283 million cases). Additionally, the disease lead to the high rate of death, the uncertainty range was between 367,000-755,000, and the average was about 584,000 deaths in 2013 (WHO, 2014). The estimated 90% of all the deaths caused by malaria are found in the Africa Region, and compared to the other regions, Africa is the highest risk region for malaria (WHO, 2014). WHO (2014) reported, among people of all ages, children under age 5 constitute the largest population of malaria mortalities, having 78% of all deaths. Pregnant women are also the most affected by malaria, for about 20% of low birthweight babies, stillbirth and maternal deaths are present due to malaria infections during pregnancy in endemic areas (WHO, 2014).

The main burden of malaria (more than 90%) is in Sub-Saharan Africa with an estimated annual number of deaths over 1 million. Two thirds of the remaining burden hits Brazil, Colombia, India, Solomon Islands, Sri Lanka and Viet Nam. The country with highest density of malaria cases is the Democratic Republic of Congo. There are no malaria cases in richer regions with temperate and cool climates like Russia.

Malaria is one of the most severe public health problems worldwide. It is the leading cause of death in many developing countries. Young children and pregnant woman are the groups that are the most affected by this disease. Plasmodium falciparum is responsible for causing over a million deaths each year and between 300-500 cases. In total, that is over 3.3 billion people who are at risk from malaria. This is almost half of the world’s population (World Health Organization’s World Malaria Report, 2013). Out of those

Malaria is a disease caused by a parasite called Plasmodium according to researches done by Center for Disease and Control. It is transmitted by mosquito bites and it is of major public health challenge in developing countries. It disproportionately affects poor people. Majority of malaria cases occur in the poorest countries of the world. (1). The journal, “The Great Killers; Malaria” compared malaria to tuberculosis, describing it as “Captain of the men of death” in Africa where it kills over a million people yearly (1). Worldwide malaria affects 200-300 million people, causing chronic debility in many (Charles Louis