Malaria

A mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite, malaria is a serious and sometimes fatal disease. Four kinds of malaria parasites infect humans: Plasmodium falciparum, P. vivax, P. ovale and P. malariae. People with malaria often experience fever, chills and flu-like illness. Left untreated, those infected suffer severe complications and die. In 2017, an estimated 219 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide and 435,000 people died; most of the deaths occur in children. Detection of HRP2, a histidine-rich protein secreted by the P. falciparum parasite, is widely used in the diagnosis of malaria. Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) is an enzyme produced by all four Plasmodium species responsible for human malaria.