Mosquitoes remain the number one killer of humans in the animal kingdom, thanks in no small part to malaria

Responsible for 500,000 deaths in 2013, malaria remains an epidemic with 198 million malaria cases in 2013. One of my attractions to this Mosquito Squad business is our social responsibility partnership with Malaria No More and their work in delivering life-saving tools and education to families across Africa in an effort to end malaria deaths. 

What is malaria?

Malaria is a life-threatening disease that is caused when an infected mosquito bites a human, passing a parasite into the human’s blood stream. The parasite moves to the human’s liver where it multiplies. Some strands of malaria parasites can occur again, remaining dormant in the human liver for several months to 4 years. Symptoms of malaria can show up 7 days to 4 weeks to 1 year after being bitten and can include flu-like symptoms such as high fever, sweats, chills, headaches, depression, muscle aches, vomiting and nausea. If drugs are unavailable, diagnoses is late or the parasite is resistant to treatment, malaria can develop into anemia, hypoglycemia or cerebral malaria (which can cause coma, life-long learning disabilities and even death). Unlike some mosquito-borne diseases, mosquitoes can carry malaria from one human to another, which makes it much harder to eradicate.