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Malari An Health Problem That Can Be Stopped Essay

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Malaria: An Health problem that can be stopped.
Nigeria has different health problems affecting the people in the country from communicable disease to infectious disease. Communicable disease like tuberculosis (TB), pertussis (whooping cough), cholera to infectious disease like diarrhea caused by either bacterial or protozoal, typhoid fever, malaria, dengue fever, yellow fever, Lassa fever, meningococcal meningitis and rabies. The health problem that will be address will be a vector borne disease called Malaria. Malaria is a life threatening blood disease transmitted through a vector, a vector is an organism which aid in the transmission of disease. It is caused by parasites transmitted to humans through the bite of a mosquito. There are about 174 different species of mosquitos however in Nigeria there are 17 different species belonging to three genera (Anopheles, Culex and Aedes). The Anopheles mosquito is responsible for transmitting the parasites which multiply constantly in the host’s liver before infecting and destroying the red blood cells.
In Nigeria, malaria is an endemic however it can be an epidemic when there is a widespread of occurrence in a particular region especially during the rainy season. It is major public health problem in Nigeria because it causes more death and cases in the country than any other in the world. It is the leading cause of death in children under the ages of 5 in Nigeria. There is an estimate of over 50 million malaria cases, 300,000

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