Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Malaria |
MalariaNoun1. An infective disease caused by sporozoan parasites that are transmitted through the bite of an infected Anopheles mosquito; marked by paroxysms of chills and fever. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "malaria" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1843. (references) |
Etymology: Malaria \Ma*la"ri*a\, noun. [Italian expression, contr. from malaaria bad air. See Malice, and Air.]. (Websters 1913) |
| Domain | Definitions |
Botanical | An acute infectious fever-producing disease. Treated with Acacia, Anacardium, Caesalpinia, Capsicum, Coffea, Elephantopus, Momordica, Morinda, Musa, Neurolaena, Parkinsonia, Scoparia, Schultesia, Simba, Simarouba, Smilax, Sterculia, Tithonia, Trichilia, Urera. (references) |
Health | A protozoan disease caused in humans by four species of the genus Plasmodium (P. falciparum (malaria, falciparum), P. vivax (malaria, vivax), P. ovale, and P. malariae) and transmitted by the bite of an infected female mosquito of the genus Anopheles. Malaria is endemic in parts of Asia, Africa, Central and South America, Oceania, and certain Caribbean islands. It is characterized by extreme exhaustion associated with paroxysms of high fever, sweating, shaking chills, and anemia. Malaria in animals is caused by other species of plasmodia. (references) |
Public Administration | A parasitic infection transmitted by infected mosquitos, mainly anopheles, and characterized by cycles of fever, chills, sweating, aneamia, large spleen and relapses; Disaster situations are conductive to the propagation of the disease; Mainly prevalent in the tropics, air travel facilitates transmission. Source: European Union. (references) |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
Malaria (Italian bad air; formerly called ague in English) is a tropical disease which causes about half a billion infections and 2 million deaths annually, mainly in tropical countries and especially in sub-Saharan Africa.
The cause of malaria was discovered by a French army doctor Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran. For this discovery he was awarded Nobel Prize in 1907.
The symptoms are fever, shivering, pain in the joints, vomiting, and convulsions; especially in young children, the disease can lead to coma and death if untreated. Malaria is caused by the protozoan parasite Plasmodium (mainly P.falciparum and P.vivax, but also more rarely P.ovale and P.malariae), one of the Apicomplexa, which travels in the Anopheles mosquito and, after the mosquito bites the host, infects hepatic cells in the liver and then circulating red blood cells.
Infected female Anopheles mosquitos carry Plasmodium sporozoites in their salivary glands. If they bite a person, which they usually do starting at dusk and during the night, the sporozoites enter the person's liver cells, multiply and turn into merozoites which then enter red blood cells. Here they feed on hemoglobin and multiply further and periodically break out of the cells, causing chills and fever and infecting new red blood cells.
The parasite is relatively protected from attack by the body's immune system because it stays inside liver and blood cells. However, circulating infected blood cells are killed in the spleen. To avoid this fate, the parasite produces certain proteins and induces infected blood cells to express them at their cell surface, causing the blood cells to stick to the walls of blood vessels. These surface proteins are highly variable and cannot serve as a reliable target for the immune system.
Some merozoites turn into male and female gametocytes. If a mosquito bites the infected person and picks up gametocytes with the blood, fertilization occurs in the mosquito's gut, new sporozoites develop and travel to the mosquito's salivary gland, completing the cycle.
Pregnant women are especially attractive to the mosquitos, and malaria in pregnant women is an important cause of still births and infant mortality.
If diagnosed early, malaria can be treated, but prevention is always much better, and substances that inhibit the parasite are widely used by visitors to the tropics. Since the 17th century quinine has been the prophylactic of choice for malaria. The development of quinacrine, chloroquine, and primaquine in the 20th century reduced the reliance on quinine. These anti-malarial medications can be taken preventively, which is recommended for travellers to affected regions.
Certain strains of Plasmodium have recently developed resistance to some of those drugs, thus complicating the treatment. In west Africa, where the local strains of malaria are particularly virulent, Larium is now the recommended prophylactic, despite causing psychological problems in some vulnerable people. It seems inevitable that resistance to this will also occur.
In addition to the antimalarial drugs, the use of mosquito repellants such as DEET, and mosquito nets and screens can reduce the chance of malaria, as well as the discomfort of insect bites.
Extracts from the plant Artemesia, containg substances unrelated to the quinine derivatives, offer some future promise.
Vaccines for malaria are under development, but no effective vaccine exists as of 2003. It is hoped that the genome sequence of the most deadly agent of Malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, which was completed in 2002, will provide targets for new drugs or vaccines.
Efforts to eradicate malaria by attacking mosquitos have been successful in some areas. Malaria was once common in the United States and southern Europe, but the draining of wetland breeding grounds and better sanitation eliminated it from affluent regions.
Malaria was eliminated from the northern parts of the USA in the early twentieth century, and the use of the pesticide DDT during the 1950s eliminated it from the south.
Since most of the deaths today occur in poor rural areas of Africa without health care, the distribution to children of mosquito nets impregnated with insect repellants has been suggested as the most cost-effective prevention method. These nets can often be obtained for less than US$10 or 10 euros when purchased in bulk from the United Nations or other organizations.
Carriers of the sickle cell anemia gene are protected against malaria because of their particular hemoglobin mutation; this explains why sickle cell anemia is particularly common among people of African origin. There is a theory that another hemoglobin mutation, which causes the genetic disease thalassemia, may also give its carriers an enhanced immunity to malaria.
Another disease that gives protection against malaria is G6PD (glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency). It protects against malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum as the presence of this enzyme is critical to survival of the parasites within red blood cells.
It is thought that humans have been afflicted by malaria for about 8,000 years, and several human genes responsible for blood cell proteins and the immune system have been shaped by the struggle against the parasite.
Mechanism of the disease
Treatment and prevention
Prospects of disease control
Sickle cell anemia and other genetic effects
External links
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Malaria."
| The following table is compiled from various sources, across various languages. When English abbreviations or acronyms come from a non-English source, this is noted. | |||
| Entry | Source | Expression | Field |
| MALAVACC | English | Malaria vaccine | N/A |
| MALAVACC | Italian | Vaccino contro la malaria | Engineering & Technology |
Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |||
Synonym: MalariaSynonym: Ague. (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Bane | Poison, toxin; teratogen; leaven, virus venom; arsenic; antimony, tartar emetic; strychnine, nicotine; miasma, miasm, mephitis, malaria, azote, sewer gas; pest. |
Insalubrity | Noun: insalubrity; unhealthiness; Adjective:; nonnaturals; plague spot; malaria; (poison); death in the pot, contagion; toxicity. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | Maybe we have malaria. (Weird Science; writing credit: John Hughes) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Private Snafu Vs. Malaria Mike (1944) Malaria (1943) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Music |
|
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Thumbnail | Description & Credit | Thumbnail | Description & Credit |
 | At astro station on Honduras - Guatemala border L. to R. - Honduras commissioner, Joseph Lushene, recorder Recorder later died of malaria Astro party of Joseph Lushene.Credit: Coast & Geodetic Survey Historical Image Collection. |  | U.S. Public Health Service. : Stream improvement for malaria control.Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | Research on the relationship between virus diseases and malaria in mosquitoes. / WHO p.Credit: National Library of Medicine; photo by Spooner.. |  | Dr. Moore and his malaria technicians begin first survey of Nepal ...Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | A malaria research worker in the laboratory.Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | [PHS workers distribute atabrine to FSA family during malaria prophylaxis studies in Jenkins County, Georgia].Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | Oil application by drip can for malaria control in WWI extra-cantonment sanitation work.Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | Fight The Peril Behind The Lines : Between Sundown And Sunrise ... The Malaria Mosquito Is More Deadly Than The Enemy.Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
 | Malaria / Elon Clark.Credit: National Library of Medicine. |  | Provisional Malaria Map of East Africa: Abyssinia.Credit: National Library of Medicine. |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |||
| Subject | Topic | Quote |
Health | Life cycle of the malaria parasite. (references) | |
Anyone, any age, can contract malaria. (references) | ||
Malaria has been a scourge since ancient times. (references) | ||
Children | Sao Tome and Principe | A number of government and donor-funded programs were established to improve conditions for children, notably an ongoing malaria control project and purchase of school and medical equipment. (references) |
Tanzania | A WHO program for children under 1 year of age has reportedly decreased the number of severe cases of malaria in the country, and the Government cooperated with the WHO in administering this program. (references) | |
Economic History | Chad | Some of Chad's most prevalent diseases include malaria, diarrheal diseases and respiratory infections. (references) |
Human Rights | Ethiopia | The Dedesa camp is in an area less prone to malaria. (references) |
Madagascar | Malnutrition, infections, malaria, and tuberculosis are common among prisoners. (references) | |
Lebanon | Four persons died in custody during 2000. In January 2000, a Sudanese asylum seeker, Abdallah Juma' Jarkum, died of malaria in Zahle prison. (references) | |
Indigenous People | Venezuela | High rates of cholera, hepatitis B, malaria, and other diseases plague their communities. (references) |
Brazil | Due partly to the Government's failure to provide adequate medical care as required by law, indigenous people have suffered epidemics of malaria, measles, and tuberculosis. (references) | |
Brazil | For example, among Yanomami, the incidence of registered cases of malaria fell from 8.3 percent in January 2000 to 0.3 percent in September 2001. Infant mortality among Yanomami also appears to have fallen significantly, although it remains higher than in the population at large. (references) | |
Trade | Tanzania | The Government has abolished all taxes for life saving drugs i.e., drugs used for HIV-AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis (TB). Withholding tax on interest on foreign loans and on goods and services for TIN (Tax Identification Number) holders has been abolished. (references) |
Travel | Nigeria | Regular use of malaria suppressants is strongly recommended. (references) |
Cote D'ivoire | Another option for malaria prophylaxis is a new drug called Malarone. (references) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits. | ||
| "Malaria" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 99.62% of the time. "Malaria" is used about 265 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 99.62% | 264 | 18,152 |
| Noun (proper) | 0.38% | 1 | 339,140 |
| Total | 100.00% | 265 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "malaria": avian malaria ♦ give malaria therapy ♦ horse malaria ♦ malaria control ♦ malaria mosquito ♦ malaria parasite ♦ Malaria Vaccines ♦ parasite of malaria. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "malaria": malaria-immune, malaria-infected, malaria-related, malaria-ridden, malaria-transmitting. | |
Ending with "malaria": anti-malaria. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Expression | Frequency per Day |
malaria | 1,196 |
malaria symptom | 86 |
malaria treatment | 31 |
malaria picture | 27 |
malaria parasite | 20 |
malaria prevention | 20 |
malaria pill | 18 |
malaria medication | 13 |
malaria and prophylaxis | 12 |
history of malaria | 12 |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| Language | Translations for "malaria"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | malarie. (various references) | |
Arabic | ملاريا (paludism), حمي (feverish), البرداء (ague). (various references) | |
Bulgarian | малария (ague, fever), миазми (mephitis). (various references) | |
Chinese | 疟疾, 瘧疾 , 瘧 , 瘴 (miasma), "子 . (various references) | |
Czech | malárie. (various references) | |
Danish | malaria. (various references) | |
Dutch | malaria. (various references) | |
Esperanto | malario. (various references) | |
Farsi | مالاریا, نوبه . (various references) | |
Finnish | malaria. (various references) | |
French | malaria, paludisme (marsh fever). (various references) | |
German | Sumpffieber (malarias), Malaria. (various references) | |
Greek | ελονοσία. (various references) | |
Hebrew | מלרי", ק"חת "ביצות (ague, swamp fever), ק"חת (ague, fever). (various references) | |
Hungarian | malária (african fever, ague, fever and agues, intermittent fever, jungle fever, prickly heat). (various references) | |
Italian | malaria (marsh fever). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | マネーフロー分析 (kind of bicycle favored by housewives running errands around their neighborhood, mafia, maharaja, Mahatma, mahogany, Mahomet, Malibu, Mama, management, manager, mannequin, mannequin girl, manometer, maracas, maraschino, marathon, Maya, mayonnaise, monetarism, money laundering, money market, money-flow analysis, moneymaker, muff, muffin, muffler, scarf). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | マラリア . (various references) | |
Korean | 말라리아. (various references) | |
Manx | malaarey, chiassaghey curree (marsh fever, swamp fever). (various references) | |
Papiamen | malaria. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | alariamay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | malária (ague, estival-autumnal fever, imparity, marsh-fire). (various references) | |
Romanian | malarie (ague, the shakes), paludism. (various references) | |
Russian | малярия (ague, agues, chills and fever, swamp fever, tertian). (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | malarija. (various references) | |
Spanish | paludismo (marsh fever, paludism), malaria. (various references) | |
Swedish | malaria (jungle fever). (various references) | |
Thai | ไข้มาลาเรีย. (various references) | |
Turkish | malarya (ague, marsh fever), sitma, sıtma (ague, aguish, intermittent fever, jungle fever, marsh fever). (various references) | |
Turkmen | ysytma (fever), gyzzyrma. (various references) | |
Ukranian | малярія (ague, paludism, quotidian, shivers). (various references) | |
Vietnamese | bệnh sốt rét (marsh fever, swamp fever). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "malaria": malarial, malarian, malarias. (additional references) | |
Words ending with "malaria": antimalaria. (additional references) | |
Words containing "malaria": antimalarial, antimalarials. (additional references) | |
| |
"Malaria" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: Amalrik, Amelavi, Kalauria, Ma'ariv, Maasia, Macarie, Macaris, Mahavira, Mahloji, Makaiwa, Makajima, makarii, Malaika, Malaita, Malaret, malariae, malarian, Malarmie, malartan, malasia, malatia, Malaviya, Malgara, Malgre, Malizia, mallaret, Mallerin, mallorcan, Maloprim, malsria, Malvasia, Malyali, Mamarev, Maqarin, Maslarova, Matari, Mavasia, Mcalary, Megaira, Meillerie, melania, Melara, Mellaril, Mijarna, Milarepa, M'laren, Moleiro, Moralia, mulazim, Mulcare, mulgara, mullertii, Nahariya, Nazario, salarian. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "malaria" (pronounced mule"rēu) |
| 4 | -e" r ē u | area, Feria, honoraria, hysteria. |
| 3 | -r ē u | aciduria, aria, Atria, bacteria, cafeteria, Coria, crematoria, criteria, diphtheria, emporia, equilibria, euphoria, Gloria, hypochondria, imperia, moratoria, nutria, phantasmagoria, rosaria, Victoria. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "a-a-a-i-l-m-r" | |
-2 letters: alarm, laari, lamia, malar, maria. | |
-3 letters: alar, alma, amia, amir, aria, aril, lair, lama, lari, liar, lima, lira, maar, mail, mair, marl, raia, rail, rami, rial. | |
-4 letters: aal, ail, aim, air, ala, ama, ami, arm, lam, lar, mar, mil, mir, ram, ria, rim. | |
-5 letters: aa, ai, al, am, ar, la, li, ma, mi. | |
| Words containing the letters "a-a-a-i-l-m-r" | |
+1 letter: calamari, malarial, malarian, malarias. | |
+2 letters: calamaris, camarilla, laminaria. | |
+3 letters: calamaries, camarillas, laminarian, laminarias, managerial, marginalia, margravial. | |
+4 letters: amobarbital, antimalaria, grammatical, laminarians, madrigalian, malapropian, maquiladora, matriarchal, paramedical, pragmatical, prothalamia. | |
+5 letters: amobarbitals, antimalarial, aromatically, charlatanism, diagrammable, dramatically, dramatizable, extramarital, managerially, maquiladoras, marriageable, maturational, misappraisal, paramedicals, paramilitary, piroplasmata, pyromaniacal, salamandrine. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
Hexadecimal (or equivalents, 770AD-1900s) (references)4D 61 6C 61 72 69 61 |
| Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519; backwards) (references)
|
| American Sign Language (origins from 1620-1817 in Italy and, especially, France) (references)
|
| Semaphore (1791, in France) (references)
|
| Braille (1829, in France) (references)
|
Morse Code (1836) (references)-- .- .-.. .- .-. .. .- |
| Dancing Men (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, 1903) (references)
|
Binary Code (1918-1938, probably earlier) (references)01001101 01100001 01101100 01100001 01110010 01101001 01100001 |
HTML Code (1990) (references)M a l a r i a |
ISO 10646 (1991-1993) (references)004D 0061 006C 0061 0072 0069 0061 |
| British Sign Language (Fingerspelling, BSL; 1992, British Deaf Association Dictionary of British Sign Language) (references)
|
Encryption (beginner's substitution cypher): (references)47677867847567 |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Photo Album 7. Quotations: Non-fiction 8. Usage Frequency | 9. Expressions 10. Expressions: Internet 11. Translations: Modern 12. Abbreviations | 13. Acronyms 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Orthography 18. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
