What Does Malaria Do to the Human Body?

Malaria is one of the oldest diseases in human history, dating back to ancient civilizations in Greece and China. It has even been attributed to aiding the fall of the Roman Empire.

So if we’ve been fighting malaria for so long, why haven’t we been able to stop it?
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SICK is a new series that looks at how diseases actually work inside our body. We'll be visiting medical centers and talking to top researchers and doctors to uncover the mysteries of viruses, bacteria, fungi and our own immune system. Come back every Tuesday for a new episode and let us know in the comments which diseases you think we should cover next.
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Read More:
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Malaria parasite transforms itself to hide from human immune system

Malaria and the liver: Immunological hide-and-seek or subversion of immunity from within?

Le Roch Malaria Lab at University of California, Riverside

[zuko]

Honestly the devs should make mosquitoes a bit larger and slower so it'd be easier to kill

[sdedy]

I'm a medstud from asia and the answer of why malaria so hard to eradicate, actually more related to the mosquitoes than the abilities of plasmodium to change protein marker.
Especially in humid area in most of the lower hemisphere like south east asia and most of south part africa, its become mosquito endemic place due to geographical factor. How on earth you eradicate the mosquito without also eradicate ecosystem there.
So most of us medstud that will be work in endemic area of mosquito just prepare to treat the patient with purpose of destroy and suppress the cycle life of plasmodium in human body.
FYI most of people that live in endemic malaria area already exposed and some infected by malaria but doesn't show any symptoms whatsoever

[swifteh]

If there's a symbiotic relationship between mosquitoes and humans, why not just genetically modify the mosquitoes so that they don't get infected? Wouldn't that stop the cycle?

[TheDro]

Does the parasite display an infinite amount of protein masks, or do they often display the same ones over time? For example, I'd be looking for repetitiveness of the results and then once a computer can learn and log all the versions of it's masks, maybe there would be a way to teach the lymphocytes to have a preemptive attack. I don't know much about how this science works, but I would assume someone has already thought of this and hit a barrier of some sort. I have a feeling this is one of those things an AI is going to help solve.

[jerry]

Come on immune system! I guess if you want something done right you have to do it yourself.

[Rsmith]

@2:23 "jokes on you, biiitch" = Sickle Cell

[mikerphone.]

Malhairia - bad hair day. For some people is a crippling disease.

[bacjam]

It's amazing how an organism without a brain can grow and adapt

[bondeternal]

As a nurse, seeing ungloved hands performing an injection at 4:01 makes me cringe hard.

[AeroJules]

Can you guys do an episode about dengue ?? That is also interesting

[eliwrzm]

I wonder if sickle cell patients could find any relief from their pain if a mutated version of the parasite that carries the proteins was introduced to their body.

[josephsarra]

Can you talk about the disease called Nagleriasis that is caused by Naegleria fowleri? It would be interesting to know about it.

[DxvinderSingh]

I was bitten when i was a baby and got malaria, somehow i survived.

[ottawahker]

I wrote a proposal to BG Foundation some years ago to contribute my idea to reduce or eradicate the vectors but did not get accepted perhaps I did not have enough data to support my claim or other reasons. I will try it again to get more data in the future.

[IndyOptionsTrader]

they should make an episode about eastern equine ensephilitis [EEEV]

[spnx]

you said it snacks on haemoglobin but what if you have methemoglobinemia?

[MonsterPumpkin]

My god I was just researching malaria yesterday, the coincidence lol

[fitnessmessiah]

I've had malaria a few times, I don't recommend it.

[tomwestheimer]

The language misrepresents the problem. The disease has no consciousness but this video talks as though it can think! You need to use the language of nature as the operator of this and many other diseases. It sounds like a minor complaint but it is the core of the challenge/problem IMHO

[TaskerTech]

Got malaria 5 times already :(, when I was living in the Amazon Forrest area.