Q: Do all mosquitoes transmit malaria?
A: Only female Anopheles genus mosquitoes can transmit malaria.
Malaria is caused by a one-celled parasite called a Plasmodium. Female Anopheles mosquitoes pick up the parasite from infected people when they bite to obtain blood needed to nurture their eggs.
Inside the mosquito the parasites reproduce and develop. When the mosquito bites again, the parasites contained in the salivary gland are injected and pass into the blood of the person being bitten.
Malaria parasites multiply rapidly in the liver and then in red blood cells of the infected person. One to two weeks after a person is infected the first symptoms of malaria appear: usually fever, headache, chills and vomiting. If not treated promptly with effective medicines, malaria can kill by infecting and destroying red blood cells and by clogging the capillaries that carry blood to the brain or other vital organs.
Don't wait for the first bite!
There are four types of human malaria: Plasmodium vivax, P. malariae, P. ovale and P. falciparum. P. vivax and P. falciparum are the most common forms. Falciparum malaria—the most deadly type—is most common in sub-Saharan Africa, where it causes more than 400 000 deaths a year.
The WHO also reports that there were 2,783,846 confirmed cases of malaria reported in public health facilities in Kenya in 2017. The number of registered malaria deaths in the country increased from 16,000 in 2016 to 17,553 in 2017 and 70% of malaria deaths occur in children under five.
