Disease Vectors and Pathogens

Quinine is a traditional antimalarial medication extracted from the bark of the cinchona tree. It has been used for centuries to treat malaria by killing the Plasmodium parasites that cause the disease. AIDS is caused by HIV and requires antiretroviral therapy, while typhoid is a bacterial infection treated with antibiotics.

Malaria is a parasitic infection that primarily affects the spleen, causing splenomegaly (enlarged spleen). The Plasmodium parasite infects and destroys red blood cells. The spleen works overtime to filter these damaged cells, leading to its characteristic enlargement. The heart, lungs, and kidneys are not the primary target organs.

Sleeping sickness (African trypanosomiasis) is transmitted by the tsetse fly, which is found only in rural Africa. The disease is caused by parasites of the Trypanosoma brucei species and can be fatal if untreated. Filariasis is transmitted by mosquitoes, smallpox is viral and spreads person-to-person, and anthrax is bacterial from infected animals or spores.

Filaria (filariasis) is a parasitic disease caused by nematode worms (Wuchereria bancrofti) transmitted through the bite of infected mosquitoes, primarily Culex, Anopheles, and Aedes species. The mosquitoes inject immature worms into the bloodstream, which mature and reproduce, causing lymphatic damage and elephantiasis. Option B correctly identifies the vector, not the pathogen itself.

Malaria primarily affects the spleen, which becomes enlarged (splenomegaly) as it works to filter out malaria-infected red blood cells. The parasite Plasmodium destroys red blood cells, and the spleen responds by increasing its filtering activity. While malaria can affect other organs systemically, the spleen bears the primary impact.

Malaria primarily affects the spleen, causing it to enlarge (splenomegaly) as it filters out infected red blood cells. The Plasmodium parasite infects and destroys red blood cells, which the spleen then removes. While malaria affects the whole body, the spleen bears the brunt of the damage.

Goitre is a thyroid enlargement caused by iodine deficiency, not a pathogen transmitted by mosquitoes. Dengue, Malaria, and Filariasis are all well-known mosquito-borne diseases caused by parasites or viruses spread through mosquito bites.

Elephantiasis (lymphatic filariasis) is caused by parasitic worms transmitted through the bite of infected mosquitoes, primarily Culex, Anopheles, and Aedes species. The worms block the lymphatic system, causing severe swelling and thickening of the skin and underlying tissues, typically in the legs and genital area.

Malaria is caused by Plasmodium parasites that infect and destroy red blood cells. The spleen works overtime to filter out these infected cells, leading to splenomegaly (enlarged spleen), which is a classic diagnostic feature of malaria.

P. falciparum is the deadliest malaria-causing agent. It is responsible for 85% of malaria cases.

P. falciparum has the tendency to infect large proportion of RBC. Patients infected with P. falciparum species will exhibit ten times the number of parasites per cubic millimetre of blood than the patients infected with the other three malaria species.

The humans acquire malarial parasite in the form of sporozoites which are haploid cells.

The patients of sickle cell anemia are naturally resistant to malaria. It is probably by microRNAs entering the parasite and tampering with its genome according to the latest research OR it may be due to smaller numbers of P. falciparum being able to infect sickled cells due to their shapes and increased rates of phagocytosis of infected sickled cells.

Most of the malarial drugs like chloroquine, primaquine, etc. destroy the malarial parasites while they are living inside red blood cells.

Mating of the gametocytes takes place in the gut of mosquito. After mating, the resultant embryo embed themselves in the mosquito’s gut, where they mature after 9 to 14 days into oocysts.