Millennium Development Goals - Biodiversity, Malaria, Sustainable Development, Ozone Depletion, Greenhouse Gas, Poverty Reduction, Water Supply (Paperback)

Please note that the content of this book primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online. Pages: 83. Chapters: Biodiversity, Malaria, Sustainable development, Ozone depletion, Greenhouse gas, Poverty reduction, Water supply, Universal Primary Education, Water point mapping, Water supply and sanitation in Sub-Saharan Africa, Slum, Neglected diseases, Maternal health, Good governance, Gender equality, UN World Water Development Report, Child mortality, International trade and water, International Year of Biodiversity, United Nations Millennium Campaign, Threatened species, Millennium Campus Network, Stand Up and Take Action, 1GOAL Education for All, Global Malaria Action Plan, Joint Monitoring Programme for Water Supply and Sanitation, OmniPeace, Muskoka Initiative. Excerpt: Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including much of Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia and the Americas. Malaria is prevalent in these regions because of the significant amounts of rainfall and consistent high temperatures; warm, consistent temperatures and high humidity, along with stagnant waters in which their larvae mature, provide mosquitoes with the environment needed for continuous breeding. The cause of the disease is a protozoan, discovered in 1880 by Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran; while he was working in the military hospital in Constantine, Algeria, he observed the parasites in a blood smear taken from a patient who had just died of malaria. The disease results from the multiplication of malaria parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases progressing to coma, and death. Four species of Plasmodium can infect and be transmitted by humans. Severe disease is largely caused by Plasmodium falciparum. Malaria caused by Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale and Plasmodiu...