Malaria is transmitted primarily through the bite of an infected female Anopheles mosquito that carries Plasmodium parasites in its saliva.

Quick Scoop

Main way malaria is transmitted

  • A female Anopheles mosquito bites a person who already has malaria and ingests Plasmodium parasites with the blood.
  • Inside the mosquito, the parasites develop and multiply over about a week, moving into the mosquito’s salivary glands.
  • When that same mosquito bites another person, it injects saliva containing the parasites into the new person’s bloodstream, starting the infection.
  • The parasites travel to the liver, multiply, then return to the blood and infect red blood cells, which is when symptoms appear.

Other (less common) transmission routes

Although mosquito bites are by far the most important route, malaria can also spread through direct contact with infected blood:

  • Blood transfusions with infected blood
  • Organ transplants from an infected donor
  • Sharing needles or syringes contaminated with malaria-infected blood
  • From mother to baby during pregnancy or around the time of birth (congenital malaria)

How malaria is NOT transmitted

  • Malaria is not spread like a cold or flu and is not considered “contagious” person-to-person.
  • You cannot get malaria from:
    • Casual contact (touching, hugging, sitting near someone)
* Kissing or saliva

* Sex or close physical contact

* Drinking dirty water (though other diseases can spread that way)

Simple example story

Imagine Person A in a malaria-endemic village has malaria parasites in their blood.

  • Mosquito M bites Person A, picks up the parasites, and they develop inside the mosquito.
  • A week later, Mosquito M bites Person B, injecting parasites into B’s blood.
  • Person B now develops malaria even though A and B never touched or met; the mosquito is the “flying syringe” that connects them.

Information gathered from public forums or data available on the internet and portrayed here.