Where Does Malaria Come from?

Usually, people get malaria by being bitten by an infective female Anopheles mosquito. Only Anopheles mosquitoes can transmit malaria and they must have been infected through a previous blood meal taken from an infected person.

Where did the malaria virus come from?

The history of malaria stretches from its prehistoric origin as a zoonotic disease in the primates of Africa through to the 21st century. A widespread and potentially lethal human infectious disease, at its peak malaria infested every continent, except Antarctica.

How does malaria begin?

Malaria infection begins when an infected female Anopheles mosquito bites a person, injecting Plasmodium parasites, in the form of sporozoites, into the bloodstream. The sporozoites pass quickly into the human liver. The sporozoites multiply asexually in the liver cells over the next 7 to 10 days, causing no symptoms.