Causes of Malaria

Contents

Malaria: Introduction
Primary Cause of Malaria
Risk factors
Complication causes
News
Related cause information

Primary Cause of Malaria

The primary cause of Malaria is the result:

of an infectious agent.

Causes of Malaria (Diseases Database):

The follow list shows some of the possible medical causes of Malaria that are listed by the Diseases Database:

Source: Diseases Database

Malaria Causes: Risk Factors

The following conditions have been cited in various sources as potentially causal risk factors related to Malaria:

Malaria: Geographical Location Profile

Geographical Profile for Malaria: Countries in tropical Africa account for more than 90 percent of the cases and more than 6 percent occur in India, Brazil, Sri... (Source: excerpt from Malaria, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID) ...more »

Malaria: Related Medical Conditions

To research the causes of Malaria, consider researching the causes of these these diseases that may be similar, or associated with Malaria:

Paludism
Paludismo
Black water fever
Mosquito vector
Plasmodia
Species
Mosquito
Mosquito bite

Malaria: Causes and Types

Causes of Types of Malaria: Review the cause informationfor the various types of Malaria:

Plasmodium falciparum - most common
Plasmodium vivax
Plasmodium malariae
Plasmodium ovale
Transfusion malaria
Congenital malaria - newborn cross-placental infection from the mother.
more types...»

Causes of Broader Categories of Malaria: Review the causal information about the various more general categories of medical conditions:

Malaria as a complication of other conditions:

Other conditions that might have Malaria as a complication may, potentially, be an underlying cause of Malaria. Our database lists the following as having Malaria as a complication of that condition:

Mosquito bite

What causes Malaria?

Article excerpts about the causes of Malaria:

Malaria, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID (Excerpt)

The parasite spends most of its life in the red blood cells of humans. Female mosquitos transmit the parasites by first ingesting them when feeding on an infected person's blood and then injecting them when biting another person. (Source: excerpt from Malaria, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID)

Malaria, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID (Excerpt)

On entering a human, the parasite invades a liver cell, takes on a new form and makes copies of itself. Eventually, the liver cell ruptures and releases the parasites to the bloodstream where they infect red blood cells. Within the blood cells, most parasites reproduce again, which kills the cells and the parasites then invade more blood cells. Other parasites, while in the blood cells, develop into male and female forms. When these cells are sucked up by a mosquito, the cells burst, freeing the sexual forms of the parasite. Within the mosquito, the two forms merge to create an oocyst. After maturing, the oocyst ruptures to release thousands of parasites, which migrate to the mosquito's salivary glands, awaiting her next bite. (Source: excerpt from Malaria, NIAID Fact Sheet: NIAID)

Facts About Transfusion-Transmitted Malaria: CDC-OC (Excerpt)

Malaria is caused by one of four protozoan species of the genus Plasmodium: P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale, and P. malariae and is transmitted by the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito. Occasionally transmission occurs by blood transfusion or congenitally from mother to fetus. (Source: excerpt from Facts About Transfusion-Transmitted Malaria: CDC-OC)