1) Parasites that cause the disease can be transferred from person to person by mosquitoes, malaria is ususally restricted to tropical and subtropical areas of the world where these insects thrive-the area hit hardest is Sub-Saharan Africa. The symptoms of malaria can be fever, chills, sweats, headaches, nausea, in severe cases neurological problems, anemia, respiratory problems, shock, and kidney failure. When a malaria-carrying mosquito bites someone, it injects the parasites it had picked up, which then make their way into the victim's red blood cells to multiply. One species of malaria parasite, Plasmodium vivax, exploits a protein on the surface of red blood cells, the "Duffy antigen," in order to enter cells. Some people, referred to as "Duffy-negative," lack the Duffy antigen on their red blood cells and are rendered resistant to infection by P.vivax malaria.
2) One of the benefits about personal genetic testing is knowing your health condition helps you plan important things in life. And one concern is that you can face really big health issue and it might discourage you make your life miserable.
3) If I could undergo personal genetic testing from 23andMe for free, I would not do it. Because I don't want to know what is going to happen in my future ahead of time. I want to live my life as I do now.
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ReplyDeleteIt is scary that though malaria is both preventable and treatable, it is still one of the leading causes of death and disease in many developing countries. It makes it hard because the the symptoms of malaria can vary and sometimes mistaken for a cold or flu. Thus, people may not recognize it right away to treat it urgently. Malaria has been one of the strongest forces all the times and still hard one to deal with. As the number of people who were Duffy-negative increased in a population, the parasites that were spread by mosquitoes would often find themselves in a host where they could not multiply. Malaria still exerts influence on the Duffy antigen gene. One more interesting point that genes testing does not currently give data on this SNP, meaning you could be Duffy-negative even if your data indicate that you are not.
ReplyDeleteUnlike mutated cancer, this type of Malaria has symptoms of chills, sweats, headaches & nausea. Cancer may not produce any symptoms until it's too late. So because Malaria causes symptoms, I think if people pay attention & get treated as soon as possible, they may be able to prevent Kidney failure.
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