Public Health Research & Development Centre

Malaria is an infectious disease caused by the bite of a mosquito. Children under the age of five and pregnant women are the most vulnerable to the severe forms of malaria. Symptoms of malaria include fever, vomiting, joint pain and shivering . The species of mosquito that carries the malaria parasite is the Anopheles. This mosquito prefers to bite at night. They usually start searching for a meal at dusk, and will continue throughout the night until taking a meal. One way to prevent malaria is to sleep under a bed net treated with insecticide. You should make sure that there are no holes in the bednet. If you feel the symptoms of malaria you should immediately go to a health centre and if you are given medicines to cure the malaria you must make sure that you take them as directed by the health care worker. Even if you feel better before you have taken all of the medicine you should continue to take them, as prescribed, until they are finished.

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1. Malaria is caused by malaria parasites (not insect bites or eating too much rice!).
   
   
2. The type of mosquito that carries the malaria parasite is called the Anopheles mosquito (not the Culex or an Antelope!).
   
   
3. Malaria mosquitoes lay their eggs in unpolluted stagnant water (not polluted stagnant water, not rivers and ponds and not bird's nests!).
   
   
4. The three most common problems that a person with malaria complains about are fever, vomiting, headache (not fever, joint pains or stomach ache / not neck pain/ bad diarrhoea/stomach ache).
   
   
5. Two common symptoms that a person with severe malaria has are drowsiness/fits (convulsions) (not drowsiness and low blood pressure / not drowsiness and neck pain).
   
   
6. The two advantages of using insecticide treated bed nets drives away and can kill mosquitoes (not drives away and can paralyse mosquitoes / not reduces attacks of asthma and keeps away insects from disturbing sleep).
   
   
7. The cause of malaria was first discovered in Algeria in 1880 (not 1902 and 1830).
   
   
8. part from African countries malaria is endemic in other countries such as Brazil (not Portugal and Vanuatu / not Chile / not Cuba and Greece).
   
   
9. The groups in the population most likely to get malaria are pregnant women and children under 5 years old (not pregnant women and children OVER 5 years old / not newborn babies and old people / not pregnant women and teenage girls).
   
   
10. The four most effective strategies we have to control malaria are insecticide treated nets/ intermittent prevention of malaria/ case management/ indoor residual spraying
    (NOT insecticide treated nets/ case management/ intermittent prevention of malaria/ covering all water sources / NOT insecticide treated nets/ covering all water sources/ keeping children and pregnant women indoors after dusk/ traditional medicines wells).