1. DISEASES CASE STUDIES
By Nicola Wahbe
Mrs Peres | Science 4

2. INFECTIOUS DISEASE -
MALARIA

3. CAUSES AND TRANSMISSION
A bite from a female mosquito can spread malaria.
There are tiny microorganisms within the mosquito’s
salivary glands that cause the disease. When the
mosquito pierces human skin to have a meal of
blood, some of the organisms enter the body, travel to
the liver and then get into the bloodstream. In the
bloodstream, they reproduces asexually. The
parasites undergo their reproductive cycle and
continue to feed off human blood, thus spreading the
disease.

4. SYMPTOMS
Chills
 Fever
 Shaking
 Profuse sweating
 Fatigue
 Low levels in red blood cells


5. TREATMENT
To treat malaria, people are given the drug
chloroquine in the form of a pill or by injection into the
muscle to kill the parasites that are in the
bloodstream. If the malaria is caused by parasites
resistant to this treatment, people are treated with a
combination of quinine, pyrimethamine and
antibiotics.

6. PREVENTION
When you are visiting or living in an area where
malaria occurs, antimalarial drugs can be
administered to prevent its occurrence. Mosquito
repellent should be applied to the skin and mosquito
netting used around your sleeping device.
Scientists have been working on developing a
vaccine for malaria, but none have proven useful so
far. It is difficult because the parasite goes through
different life stages, also changing the chemical
makeup of its cell coat. Therefore, what vaccine/
antibiotic works in one case will not necessarily work
in another.

7. INCIDENCE
Malaria is a tropical disease found mostly in
equatorial regions of South America, Central America,
Africa and Asia.

9. REFERENCES (BOOKS AND WEBSITES USED
FOR INFORMATION)
http://www.who.int/topics/malaria/en/
 Diseases V5: Edited by Bryan Bunch Scientific
Publishing
 http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/malaria-topicoverview


10. NON-INFECTIOUS DISEASE –
BIPOLAR
DISORDER

11. CAUSES AND TRANSMISSION
The cause of bipolar disorder is unknown, although
it seems to involve the chemicals that transmit
messages from one nerve to another.
 It is often concentrated within a particular family, but
there is no pattern of inheritance. Therefore, it is at
least partly genetic in origin.
 Bipolar disorder is what physicians describe as
sporadic, meaning that “the disease occurs without
any evident hereditary connection or other known
cause.”


12. SYMPTOMS
Unexplained changes in mood
 Restlessness
 Impulsive
 Withdrawal
 Apathy


13. TREATMENT
Cannot be completely cured or prevented
 Symptoms can often be treated successfully: most
effective treatment has been regular doses of a
compound of the light metal lithium.
 This drug reduces the intensity of both mania and
depression and it makes attacks less frequent.
 Lithium has severe side effects and should be
taken only under close medical supervision.
 During periods of depression, severely affected
individuals may need to go into hospital.


14. PREVENTION
Bipolar disorders cannot be prevented. But often to
mood swings can be controlled by medicines (see
treatment).

15. INCIDENCE

Common – estimated to affect up to 3% of the
population (estimate leaving out many boarder line
cases)

16. REFERENCES (BOOKS AND WEBSITES USED
FOR INFORMATION)
Diseases V1: Edited by Bryan Bunch Scientific
Publishing
 http://www.webmd.com/bipolar-disorder/tc/bipolardisorder-prevention
