YOU ARE LEARNING:
Malaria
Malaria
Protists are another type of pathogen. Malaria is a disease that involves protists. Mosquitos are considered the vector, as they spread the disease when biting different humans and transferring the protist.
Which pathogen do you think causes malaria?
What type of organism do you think protists are?
How are malaria protists spread?
So malaria is spread by mosquitos. What do you think actually happens?
What happens to a mosquito with a protist inside?
Malaria is caused by a protist. The protist is transferred to mosquitoes via the blood they drink. They can then transfer the disease to the next person they bite. We say that the mosquito is a vector for malaria (an organism that transfers the disease). The mosquito itself is not affected.
What do you think are the symptoms of malaria?
In roughly 50% of people who are infected with malaria, the disease leads to...
How can people be protected against malaria?
How can you prevent the mosquito from biting you?
Malaria causes recurrent episodes of fever and can even lead to death. The best thing you can do to prevent the disease is to prevent mosquitoes (the vectors for the disease) from breeding and biting, for example with a mosquito net.