Malaria: An Ancient Disease yet a Global Concern

Malaria is an ancient parasitic disease caused by apicomplexan parasites of Plasmodium genus. For centuries, the disease has wreaked havoc on the health, economy, well-being and social life of the populations dwelling in the tropical and sub-tropical regions of the world. Each year, the malaria parasite claims more than 5,00,000 lives, most of which are children below the age of five. Despite technological advances, malaria could not be eradicated from the world due to the complex life-cycle of the malaria parasite and its wonderful strategies to evade the host immune responses. Understanding the biology of the malaria parasite, its life-cycle is crucial to devise ways to fight this disease. This review provides the readers with a lucid description of the disease, the biology of the malaria parasite, the clinical symptoms of the disease and points out towards the existing strategies for controlling this life-threatening scourge. The review describes why the prolonged fight against malaria has met with very little success. It points towards the challenges in malaria elimination and control and also discusses some of the approaches that are in current practice for controlling drug resistance in malaria and anti-malarial drug discovery.