Malaria is a serious and sometimes fatal disease caused by Plasmodium species that infects
Anopheles mosquito which feeds on humans. But, as malaria parasites live in the RBC, infection
also occur by blood transfusion, organ transplantation, shared contaminated needles or stickinjury,
and placental transmission with perinatal outcomes such as stillbirth, low birth weight,
preterm birth, and small-for-gestational-age neonates. Malaria patients are typically very sick
with high fevers, shaking chills, and flu-like illness; but these symptoms may be mild and difficult
to diagnose malaria. The severe infection may cause kidney failure, seizures, mental confusion,
coma, and death. Man is infected by P. falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale subspecies, P. malariae,
& P. knowlesi, with P. falciparum results in severe infections, which may be miss-diagnosed
with zoonotic babesiosis. Although malaria can be a deadly disease, illness and death from malaria
can usually be prevented.
Nowadays, migrants from endemic countries constitute a high proportion of imported malaria
cases in non-endemic countries