QUESTION:

How do you get malaria?

ANSWER:

Malaria is caused by parasites called Plasmodium, of which different species cause different types of malaria. A person gets malaria when they are bitten by certain female mosquitoes (of the species Anopheles) that carry Plasmodium parasites in their saliva. The mosquitoes themselves pick up the parasite by feeding on the blood of people already infected with malaria.

Once a person has been bitten by an infected mosquito, the parasites are released into their bloodstream. Inside the body, they reproduce and multiply—different types of malaria have different lengths of reproductive cycle and different locations in the body where the life stages reside. It is the process of reproduction and movement through the body that causes the fever, chills and other symptoms that are associated with a malaria infection.