A report on Malaria, Antimalarial medication, Chloroquine and Plasmodium

Malaria parasite connecting to a red blood cell
Main symptoms of malaria
Medical quinolines
Plasmodium is a eukaryote but with unusual features.
The life cycle of malaria parasites. Sporozoites are introduced by a mosquito bite. They migrate to the liver, where they multiply into thousands of merozoites. The merozoites infect red blood cells and replicate, infecting more and more red blood cells. Some parasites form gametocytes, which are taken up by a mosquito, continuing the life cycle.
Hemozoin formation in P. falciparum: many antimalarials are strong inhibitors of hemozoin crystal growth.
Life cycle of a species that infects humans
Micrograph of a placenta from a stillbirth due to maternal malaria. H&E stain. Red blood cells are anuclear; blue/black staining in bright red structures (red blood cells) indicate foreign nuclei from the parasites.
Resochin tablet package
Ring forms of Plasmodium inside human red blood cells (Giemsa stain)
Electron micrograph of a Plasmodium falciparum-infected red blood cell (center), illustrating adhesion protein "knobs"
Sporozoites, one of several different forms of the parasite, from a mosquito
The blood film is the gold standard for malaria diagnosis.
Oldest mosquito fossil with Plasmodium dominicana, 15-20 million year old
Ring-forms and gametocytes of Plasmodium falciparum in human blood
Many birds, from raptors to passerines like the red-whiskered bulbul (Pycnonotus jocosus), can carry malaria.
An Anopheles stephensi mosquito shortly after obtaining blood from a human (the droplet of blood is expelled as a surplus). This mosquito is a vector of malaria, and mosquito control is an effective way of reducing its incidence.
A clinic for treating human malaria in Tanzania
Man spraying kerosene oil in standing water, Panama Canal Zone, 1912
Over 3000 species of lizard, including the Carolina anole (Anolis carolinensis), carry some 90 kinds of malaria.
Walls where indoor residual spraying of DDT has been applied. The mosquitoes remain on the wall until they fall down dead on the floor.
The mosquito Anopheles stephensi is among the blood-feeding insects that can be infected by a species of Plasmodium.
A mosquito net in use.
An advertisement for quinine as a malaria treatment from 1927.
Deaths due to malaria per million persons in 2012
Past and current malaria prevalence in 2009
Ancient malaria oocysts preserved in Dominican amber
British doctor Ronald Ross received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 1902 for his work on malaria.
Chinese medical researcher Tu Youyou received the Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine in 2015 for her work on the antimalarial drug artemisinin.
Artemisia annua, source of the antimalarial drug artemisinin
U.S. Marines with malaria in a field hospital on Guadalcanal, October 1942
Members of the Malaria Commission of the League of Nations collecting larvae on the Danube delta, 1929
1962 Pakistani postage stamp promoting malaria eradication program
Malaria clinic in Tanzania
Child with malaria in Ethiopia
World War II poster
Disability-adjusted life year for malaria per 100,000 inhabitants in 2004 no data <10 0–100 100–500 500–1000 1000–1500 1500–2000 2000–2500 2500–2750 2750–3000 3000–3250 3250–3500 ≥3500

Antimalarial medications or simply antimalarials are a type of antiparasitic chemical agent, often naturally derived, that can be used to treat or to prevent malaria, in the latter case, most often aiming at two susceptible target groups, young children and pregnant women.

- Antimalarial medication

Chloroquine is a medication primarily used to prevent and treat malaria in areas where malaria remains sensitive to its effects.

- Chloroquine

The ensuing destruction of host red blood cells can result in malaria.

- Plasmodium

As well, despite very positive outcomes from many modern treatments, serious side effects can impact some individuals taking standard doses (e.g., retinopathy with chloroquine, acute haemolytic anaemia with tafenoquine).

- Antimalarial medication

Malaria is caused by single-celled microorganisms of the Plasmodium group.

- Malaria

As an antimalarial, it works against the asexual form of the malaria parasite in the stage of its life cycle within the red blood cell.

- Chloroquine

A number of drugs have been developed to treat Plasmodium infection; however, the parasites have evolved resistance to each drug developed.

- Plasmodium

The recommended treatment for malaria is a combination of antimalarial medications that includes artemisinin.

- Malaria

In areas where resistance is present, other antimalarials, such as mefloquine or atovaquone, may be used instead.

- Chloroquine

Resistance among the parasites has developed to several antimalarial medications; for example, chloroquine-resistant P. falciparum has spread to most malarial areas, and resistance to artemisinin has become a problem in some parts of Southeast Asia.

- Malaria

It has no known effect against hypnozoites therefore is not used in the prevention of relapse.

- Antimalarial medication

Resistance to quinine spurred the development of a broad array of antimalarial medications through the 20th century including chloroquine, proguanil, atovaquone, sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine, mefloquine, and artemisinin.

- Plasmodium
Malaria parasite connecting to a red blood cell

2 related topics with Alpha

Overall

Plasmodium vivax

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Protozoal parasite and a human pathogen.

Protozoal parasite and a human pathogen.

This parasite is the most frequent and widely distributed cause of recurring malaria.

They form hypnozoites, a small stage that nestles inside an individual liver cell.

Chloroquine remains the treatment of choice for vivax malaria, except in Indonesia's Irian Jaya (Western New Guinea) region and the geographically contiguous Papua New Guinea, where chloroquine resistance is common (up to 20% resistance).

Where an artemisinin-based combination therapy has been adopted as the first-line treatment for P. falciparum malaria, it may also be used for P. vivax malaria in combination with primaquine for radical cure.

Plasmodium falciparum

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Laveran's drawing of various stages of P. falciparum as seen on fresh blood (1880).
Blood smear from a P. falciparum culture (K1 strain - asexual forms) - several red blood cells have ring stages inside them. Close to the center is a schizont and on the left a trophozoite.
Ring forms in red blood cells (Giemsa stain)
Life cycle of Plasmodium

Plasmodium falciparum is a unicellular protozoan parasite of humans, and the deadliest species of Plasmodium that causes malaria in humans.

In the late 1930s, the Germans developed chloroquine, which went into use in the North African campaigns.

According to WHO guidelines 2010, artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are the recommended first-line antimalarial treatments for uncomplicated malaria caused by P. falciparum.