Today, I continue with the topic of malaria, which is also called malaria. This last name derives from the Italian language because, in the past, the disease was attributed to the barely aria (bad air) that existed in swampy areas. Interestingly, for the same reason, the expression malaria has its origins in Latin: a request (swamp). The English refer to malaria and the French to malaria to designate the same disease. We use both expressions interchangeably, as they are synonymous.
As I mentioned before, these are mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles (anophelines) that transmit the parasites that cause malaria through female bites, as they feed on blood. These agents are protozoa of the genus Plasmodiumwhich have the particularity of reproducing in the mosquito itself (unlike, for example, the dengue fever virus which is only transported).
Although the typical form is due to anopheline bites, a blood transfusion can transmit the parasites as long as the transfused blood contains these protozoa. In this regard, at DGS, in 2004, I experienced days of great concern when I received notification of the cause of a death that was attributed to cerebral malaria. It referred to a citizen (who was 60 years old), resident in Leiria. The situation had to be investigated rigorously. It was imperative to understand where and how he had acquired malaria. I called myself this investigation. From the interviews I conducted with the closest family members, I was certain that the patient in question had never left the Continent, but that, days before she died, she had undergone a surgical intervention that required a blood transfusion. Soon after, at my request, the hospital’s clinical director informed me of the batch of transfused blood and through the Blood Institute I verified that the donor had been a Guinean worker who had recently returned from Bissau. That’s how I managed to locate him and talk to him on the phone (my knowledge of the Creole language helped). I realized, from the report he gave, that he had hidden his condition of having been feverish at the time of the donation…
Return to vector transmission. I insist that the mosquitoes that live in Portugal, despite belonging to the genus Anophelesthey no longer have the capacity to transmit malaria parasites, as had happened in the first half of the last century. They are the same species (Anopheles artroparvus), but without the ability to transmit malaria agents (plamodia) that circulate in tropical regions.
So, how to explain this phenomenon?
(Continues)
Former Director General of Health
franciscogeorge@icloud.com