Malaria

• What is malaria?

  It is a communicable disease spread by a pathogen. The malaria pathogen is a type of protist.
• What do people with malaria experience?

  Repeated bouts of fever. Malaria can be fatal.
• What is the life cycle of malaria?

  First the infected person is bitten by a mosquito and the malaria pathogen is passes into the mosquito. The mosquito now bites a different person and passes the malaria pathogen to them.
• What is the mosquito called when malaria is involved?

  A vector because it carries the pathogen from one person to another.
• How do we prevent the spread of malaria?

  Firstly we need to stop the vector from breeding and they breed in still water. So, to stop this, we need to find areas of still water and drain them. We can also spray areas of still water with insecticide which kills the vector.

  Secondly we can prevent mosquitos from biting humans. We do this by sleeping under a mosquito net. The mosquitos cannot get through the net so they can't bite the person sleeping in the bed. If we spray the mosquito net with insecticide, then any mosquitos which land on the net are killed.