Malaria: An Introduction

Copyright 2014 Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute

In this film you will find out about the disease malaria. You will hear what it is and what causes the symptoms of the disease. You will also hear from researchers about the challenges of drug resistance and how they are working to find new targets for drugs to treat the disease.

The film takes you on a journey into the body to explore the life cycle of the malaria parasite. You will follow the parasite from the first mosquito bite as it travels to the human liver and then invades red blood cells. You will see the parasite destroying red blood cells and then being sucked up by a mosquito, completing its development in the mosquito gut and salivary gland.

The film also includes researchers talking about the challenges of malaria, particularly the parasites ability to develop resistance to many of the drugs commonly used to destroy it. The researchers explain what they are doing to overcome these challenges by developing methods of tracking drug resistance and identifying new targets for future treatments for malaria.