Malaria is a serious tropical disease, which in severe cases can be fatal. Is widespread in tropical and subtropical areas around the world. From a global point of view, constitutes an enormous public health problem, with 300 to 500 million new cases each year. In Europe are diagnosed every year thousands of cases among visitors to endemic areas (where there is a disease), and among immigrants from those areas. Some of these cases end with death.
Its cause is a parasitic protozoa of the genus Plasmodium of which there are four species:
* P. falciparum
* P. malariae
* P. vivax
* P. ovale.