The impacts of malaria are seen in the death of the victims, the medical costs, income deterioration, and reduced economic growth. The direct and indirect costs of malaria in Africa are estimated to be more than $2 billion as revealed by the WHO. Malaria has for a long time been considered a consequence of poverty. Today, it is regarded as the cause of poverty following its toll on families and the economy. Experts in medical science and research admit that malaria slows down economic growth by up to 1.3% every year. The rural people are often at high risk as they are less likely to have the means to prevent and treat malaria. The children usually miss their education sessions and suffer physical and mental trauma. Most people affected by malaria cannot contribute to the income of their households. A report by WHO implies that families spend a quarter of their annual income to treat the disease. 

Global Health Topic

Malaria is a disease caused by a mosquito bite. This mosquito-borne infectious illness affects humans across the world. It is caused by a protozoan parasite that belongs to the genus Plasmodium. There are four species of this parasite that are accountable for all human infections. However, the species P falciparum has the most infection in Africa and responsible for the severity of the disease with high rates of mortality. 

The risks for malaria and its epidemics grow with the growth in climate and it changes with the activities such as mining, logging, road construction, and irrigation among other activities. The4se changes increase the breeding sites of malaria-transmitting mosquitoes and as a result, promote the transmission of the disease (Mbah et al., 2014). The military conflicts can also result in the spread of the disease as people are forced into the new areas of exposure and limiting the access to prevention and treatment centers. The movement of the nonimmune persons places them at high risks and allows malaria to re-emerge in the places where it was previously in control. The declining health services and increasing drug resistance also contributes to the spread of malaria. 

 Individuals can protect themselves against malaria by wearing protective clothing and using the insects to repel and bed nets. The World Health Organization posits that the field trials show insecticide-related bed nets and curtains that can reduce childhood mortality by 15% to 35%. Despite the proven efficiency, less than 2% of the children in Africa who sleep under protective bed nets get infected (Kakuru et al., 2019). There are drugs used to prevent and treat infections in people. The increasing use of chloroquine-resistant malaria has called for the need for new drugs. Use-friendly medicine packaging also makes sure the patients take medicines as per the physician’s prescription. Better compliance helps with the prevention of the development of drug-resistant malaria. While many new antimalarial drugs have been developed over the last 20 years and there is a need for an affordable, effective, safe alternative to chloroquine. 

In 1998, the WHO, the United Nations Development Program (UNDP), UNICEF, and the World Bank started global roll-back malaria (RBM) partnership. In 2010, the coalition of the governments developed agencies commercial organizations, research groups, and the media sought to eliminate the world incidences of malaria. The focus of this tier was on

• Early diagnosis and fast treatment
• Insecticide-treated bed nets and vector control
• Malaria treatment for pregnant women
• Prevention and response to the epidemics

The global efforts saw the medicines for malaria venture aiming to discover and develop the new antimalarial drugs. These would then be made accessible in developing countries. The private and public partnerships brought together the expertise in the drug industry with the experiences of the public sector (Kula, Haines & Fryatt, 2013). The WHO works with the Swiss pharmaceuticals to offer people in the malaria-endemic countries the antimalarial combination drug Coartem at low prices. Today, there are different vaccines developed and there is hope that in the coming decade, there will be one vaccine that will be deemed effective for battling malaria. 

The Miasma Theory

In the 95BC, Lucrctius presented a hypothesis that swamp fever may occur from a living organism. In the 19th century, there was a theory that fevers from Italian malaria were caused by poisonous vapor or miasma from the swamps. Climate seasons and geographical location were thought to be an influence of fevers that were referred to as paludal. There were findings that not all the swamps were bound to cause malaria and fevers (Hempelmann & Krafts, 2013). In the 1800s, sci