What is Malaria?

Malaria is a disease that is caused by the parasite protozoa known as plasmodium.   It is estimated that there are nearly 100 different species of malaria(1).

An image of plasmodium: the parasite responsible for malaria. 

When someone becomes infected with malaria, the mobile form of the plasmodium known as a sporozoite travels through the blood stream of the infected host.  These sporozoites travel to the liver, where they mature into what are known as merozoites.  These merozoites make their way to the red blood cells, which they infect.  Inside the red blood cells, the merozoites multiply by asexually replicating.  After about 48-72 hours the red blood cells burst open with many new merozoites(2).     

This illustration depicts the multiple forms plasmodium can take during its life.  

Symptoms for malaria can show up any time from 10 days to 4 weeks after the infection occurred.  Some symptoms include headaches, chills/shivering, cold sweats, vomiting, jaundice, anemia, paroxysm, and coma.  More symptoms are known to occur, and the frequency of some symptoms can be higher than others. A particularly dangerous strain of plasmodium is  P. falciparum. 
P. falciparum causes some of the most fatal symptoms such as hypoglycemia, cerebral malaria, renal failure(kidney failure), and hepatomegaly. 

Pregnant women can face many complications if they're infected with malaria.  Many women who infected with malaria and also happen to be pregnant face many complications during birth.  Many babies that do survive will have a very low birth weight, which can put their lives and growth at risk.  Many of these pregnancies end up with still births.

(1.) https://www.malarianomore.org/pages/what-is-malaria

(2.) http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/ency/article/000621.htm

(3.)  http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3375727/