Malaria Migration
It’s widely known that malaria is spread by mosquitoes. But how often do you get to see the mechanics of that process up close? Here, you can see red malaria parasites in a single drop of mosquito saliva.
Media For Educational Use Only
DownloadMalaria Migration
It’s widely known that malaria is spread by mosquitoes. But how often do you get to see the mechanics of that process up close? Here, you can see red malaria parasites in a single drop of mosquito saliva.
What am I looking at?
This video shows fluorescently labeled malaria parasites in a drop of saliva (1) coming out of a mosquito's mouth, also called a proboscis (2).
Biology in the background
Malaria is a huge public health problem around the world, especially in warmer climates like Africa. Malaria is the name of the disease caused by a single-celled parasite in the genus Plasmodium. Once in the human body, the plasmodium parasites live in the liver and red blood cells of the host. These parasites are passed from human to human by mosquitoes. When a mosquito bites an infected person, it ingests infected red blood cells. The parasite can live in the mosquito’s digestive system and migrate into its salivary glands. Then, when an infected mosquito bites an uninfected person, it can pass the parasite along through its saliva as it enters that person’s bloodstream during the bite.
At this stage in its life cycle, a plasmodium can be up to 14 micrometers long, or roughly five times smaller than the width of a human hair.
Technique
This video was created using fluorescence microscopy.
Sachie Kanatani, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health