Ebola is deadly but malaria steals more lives

waltky · Apr 21, 2016

Europe malaria-free...

WHO: European Region Worlds First Malaria-Free
April 20, 2016 : From 1995 to 2015, number of so-called indigenous or locally transmitted malaria cases in region dropped from 90,712 to zero

In 2015, for the first time, all the countries in the European region reported no original cases of malaria, the World Health Organization (WHO) said in its annual report released Wednesday ahead of World Malaria Day 2016 on April 25. From 1995 to 2015, the number of so-called indigenous or locally transmitted malaria cases dropped from 90,712 to zero in Europe, the Caucasus and Central Asia, which constitute the WHOs European region.

In 2015, there were an estimated 438,000 malaria deaths worldwide, according to the WHO, most of them in the African Region (90 percent), followed by the South-East Asia Region (7 percent) and the Eastern Mediterranean Region (2 percent).

An Anopheles stephensi mosquito obtains a blood meal from a human host through its pointed proboscis

Case importation risk

The WHO recognizes however, that the European region remains prone of a reappearance of the disease due to importation of cases from areas of the world where malaria is endemic. Dr. Zsuzsanna Jakab, WHO Regional Director for Europe, said that until malaria is eradicated globally, people travelling to and from malaria-endemic countries can import the disease to Europe, and we have to keep up the good work to prevent its reintroduction".

Maintaining zero cases in the European Region will require sustained political commitment, resources and constant vigilance, the WHO said. The region was last declared malaria free in 1975.

http://www.voanews.com/content/european-region-first-malaria-free/3293908.html
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Bluesguy · Apr 25, 2016

snakestretcher said: ↑

You can read a financial statement/profit and loss account and work it out for yourself, can't you?
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Sure can, I can read balance sheets, statements of accounts, income statements, profit/loss statements but I have no interest in Marian Hemar and it is YOUR assertion about vast profits, what % net profits make it a VAST profit?

Bluesguy · Apr 25, 2016

snakestretcher said: ↑

What on earth are you talking about? Britain is always developing new drugs-or do you believe only America does? http://bmjopen.bmj.com/content/4/10/e006235.full
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Didn't say non but did say your socialized system, not the private UK drug companies. So why isn't the British Government supplying the drugs?

lizarddust · Apr 25, 2016

longknife said: ↑

Well, gee whiz. Is this “news”? Of course not! But our Doctor-in-Chief has decided it's in the US' “best interests” to get involved in ebola.

As for malaria, it's carried by air borne insects that breed in swamps. All that is needed is an extensive surge of spraying these swamps with DDT to wipe them out.

Gasp! DDT? What a horrid thought. Using a banned substance that scientists say is not really responsible for all the horrors claimed to it.

Anyhow, read the article @ http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/9/16/ebola-is-deadly-butmalariastealsmorelives.html
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Not always. Anopheles and any mosquito can breed anywhere there's water. This is why mosquitoes breed in the wet season in the tropics. I lived in Laos for eight years. During the wet season there were always public announcements not to leave water lying around in buckets and other containers and ensure water tanks are insect tight. Most of the world's poor live in the tropics or subtropics. This is one reason Malaria, Dengue fever etc have such devastating effects in those parts of the world.

But yes, mosquito borne diseases kill more people than Ebola.

waltky · Apr 25, 2016

Malaria free in 4 years?...

Report: Six African Nations Could be Malaria-free by 2020
April 25, 2016 - Within the next four years, six nations in Africa the region where malaria is most prominent could be free of the disease, the World Health Organization said in a report published Monday to mark World Malaria Day.

The Global Technical Strategy for Malaria 2016-2030, approved by the WHO last year, hoped to see an end to local transmission of malaria in at least 10 countries by 2020, but now the WHO estimates that 21 countries could achieve that goal, including six in Africa. Since the year 2000, malaria mortality rates have declined by 60% globally. In the WHO African Region, malaria mortality rates fell by 66% among all age groups and by 71% among children under 5 years, the WHO said in a statement accompanying the report. The six countries in Africa that could be rid of malaria by 2020 are Algeria, Botswana, Cape Verde, Comoros, South Africa and Swaziland.

A doctor puts a heart monitor on the foot of a baby who is suffering from severe malaria in the Siaya hospital in western Kenya.

WHO says malaria infection rates are falling thanks to the use of insecticide-treated bed-nets, regular bug spraying inside dwellings and rapid diagnostic testing, though these techniques are becoming less effective as time goes on. The efficacy of the tools that secured the gains against malaria in the early years of this century is now threatened, the WHO said. Mosquito resistance to insecticides used in nets and indoor residual spraying is growing. So too is parasite resistance to a component of one of the most powerful antimalarial medicines. While the outlook is promising, the group cautioned that nearly half of the worlds population around 3.2 billion people are still at risk of contracting malaria. Just last year, 214 million new cases of malaria were reported in 95 countries. More than 400,000 people died from the disease.

Algeria, Botswana, Cape Verde, Comoros, South Africa, and Swaziland, in Africa

The report says 9 out of ten deaths from malaria in 2015 came from sub-Saharan Africa. Moving forward, the WHO said new technologies will need to be developed to deal with the disease and the fight will require strong political commitment and financing from governments. Reaching the goals of the Global Technical Strategy will require a steep increase in global and domestic fundingfrom $2.5 billion today to an estimated $8.7 billion annually by 2030, it said.

http://www.voanews.com/content/report-six-african-nations-could-be-malaria-free-by-2020/3301183.html
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waltky · May 1, 2016

Malaria outbreak in Colombia linked to illegal mining...

Colombias illegal mining linked to malaria outbreak
Sun, May 01, 2016 - PERFECT BREEDING GROUNDS: There have been 18,524 cases of malaria, compared with 4,740 a year earlier, which is being blamed on standing water from illegal mines

Colombias widespread illegal mining is blamed for causing environmental damage and holding workers in slave-like conditions and now is also being blamed for a malaria outbreak. Critics point to stagnant water buildups at the clandestine sites and poor sanitary conditions at the workers camps for an increase in mosquitoes spreading the disease, which has quadrupled in jungle regions of the hard-hit and impoverished western department of Choco. The country had more or less controlled its malaria problem... The death rate had dropped significantly, Colombian Minister of Health Alejandro Gaviria said this week. But because of illegal mining ... weve had hotspots since last year and especially this year.

A miner stands at an entrance of an unlicensed gold mine in San Antonio village, in a mountainous area near the municipality of Buritica in northwestern Antioquia Department, Colombia

Speaking on RCN radio, Gaviria said that malaria was especially on the rise in Choco which stretches from the border with Panama along a stretch of Colombias Pacific coastline as well as the Bajo Cauca area to the east. The Colombian National Health Institute counted 18,524 malaria cases and about 300 cases of the diseases more severe strain. A year earlier, only 4,740 cases of malaria were recorded. However, outbreaks of malaria due to clandestine mining are not new. Population displacement linked to the exploitation of gold mines [and resulting deforestation] has previously created isolated epidemics of malaria in Latin America, the health institute said. Mining is a major source of revenue for Colombia.

In 2012, the last year for which official figures are available, legal mining accounted for 2.3 percent of GDP, or US$8.5 billion. However, authorities say that more than half of Colombias mining sites are illegal. In these illegal mines, which help finance illegal armed groups, excavators dig huge holes where water accumulates, perfect breeding grounds for malaria-carrying mosquitoes, University of Antioquia researcher Ivan Dario Velez said. And the sites where the miners set up camp usually lack public utilities and have very poor hygiene conditions, which encourages the spread of mosquito and thus the disease, he said. Malaria symptoms include feverish headaches, chills, fatigue, nausea and vomiting.

MORE
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waltky · May 4, 2016

Nigeria to use new malaria test...

New Urine Test Offers Quick, Painless Check for Malaria
May 03, 2016 - The Nigerian government is encouraging use of a new home test kit to diagnose malaria, in hopes that citizens don't assume they have the disease and self-medicate every time they have a fever.

The simple urine test kit, containing five test strips, is available at a Nigerian pharmacy for $12. After urine is collected in the cup, the user dips a test stick in the sample and leaves it for 25 minutes. One line on the stick means the person doesn't have malaria. Two lines indicates infection from the mosquito-borne illness.

The test kit replaces painful blood tests. "I think that is revolutionary, said shopper Ezzine Anyanwu, explaining that many of her family members don't necessarily take care of themselves well, so whenever anything is wrong [they assume] it is malaria and so they take medications."

Malaria is endemic in many countries, including Nigeria, and there are an estimated 425 million cases worldwide. The disease kills more than 400,000 people a year. Prompt diagnosis is considered key for successful treatment.

The urine test was developed by Fyodor BioTechnology, an American company, and underwent trials in Nigeria. "Malaria elimination in Nigeria is overdue, said Victoria Enwenmadu of Fyodor Biotechnology. A lot of countries have succeeded in eliminating malaria and the Federal Ministry of Health is doing a lot of work to encourage proper care. So, I think what we bring to the table also adds value to malaria elimination. One aspect is to test before you treat." Fyodor BioTechnology hopes to make the test available throughout Africa and Asia.

http://www.voanews.com/content/new-urine-test-quick-painless-malaria-check/3314026.html
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waltky · May 13, 2016

Granny says, "Dat's right - use Faso Soap an' wash dem skeeters away...

Mosquito-repellent Soap Invention Seeks to Fight Malaria in Africa
May 12, 2016 Two former students from Burkina Faso have designed a mosquito-repellent soap, which they hope could be a simple and affordable solution in the fight to end malaria, but more funds are needed to test the idea, according to the startup behind it.

Moctar Dembélé and Gérard Niyondiko, the brains behind Faso Soap, were awarded a $25,000 prize for their invention in 2013 when they became the first African winners of the Global Social Venture Competition at the University of California Berkeley. Yet Faso Soap must be tested to ensure it is safe for human use and effective at preventing malaria before it can be mass produced by soap manufacturers in Africa, said Franck Langevin, campaigns director for the Ouagadougou-based startup. The soap, created from natural oils and plants, could prove successful in preventing malaria as it would be cheap and rely on existing habits of African households, Langevin said. "People in Africa are very reluctant to change their habits, but soap is present in most homes, and is used for bathing, cleaning the house and washing clothes," he said.

The soap is designed to repel mosquitoes up to six hours after being applied, and once soapy water is thrown away on the street, hinder the insects from breeding in stagnant water. "It is a simple and affordable weapon in the fight against malaria," Langevin told the Thomson Reuters Foundation. Last month, Faso Soap launched a crowd funding appeal for $113,000 to finalize the development of the soap with the aim of distributing it in six African countries hardest-hit by malaria by 2018, working with soap manufacturers and aid agencies.

A photo provided by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows a female Aedes aegypti mosquito acquiring a blood meal from a human host.

Last year, there were 214 million cases of malaria worldwide with the mosquito-borne disease killing 438,000 people, most of them in sub-Saharan Africa. Jo Lines, reader of malaria control and vector biology at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, praised the idea behind the soap, but said it would be dangerous to rely on an untested product to protect against malaria.

As a social startup, Langevin said Faso Soap has struggled to attract funding from donors, including the World Health Organisation (WHO) and United Nations children's agency (UNICEF), prompting the inventors to turn to crowd funding. World leaders committed to ending malaria by 2030 when they adopted the Sustainable Development Goals last year. Europe last month became the first region to be declared malaria-free after reporting no indigenous cases in 2015, and a former WHO official said the world can eliminate the disease soon, but only with more investment to end and keep it at bay.

http://www.voanews.com/content/mosq...-wash-away-africa-malaria-threat/3327209.html
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waltky · May 25, 2016

Malaria drug 'should stop for troops'...

Lariam should be drug of last resort for troops, MPs say
Tue, 24 May 2016 | Anti-malarial drug Lariam, which can cause severe side-effects, should be the "drug of last resort" for UK troops, MPs on the defence committee say.

The drug has been prescribed to at least 17,000 service personnel at least once between April 2007 and March 2015. The MPs criticised the MoD over the way it issued the controversial drug, which can cause severe side-effects, including depression and anxiety. The MoD said the "vast majority of deployed personnel already receive alternatives to Lariam". Lariam - the brand name for mefloquine - is prescribed to civilians as well as troops.

British soldiers in Helmand, Afghanistan

While it is not the main anti-malarial drug used by the armed forces, critics argue its side-effects can be more detrimental to those serving in challenging and dangerous countries. Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease which causes fever, headaches, vomiting and diarrhoea and can be fatal. In 2015, it killed about 438,000 people and there were 214m cases of the disease, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, according to World Health Organization estimates.

'Mass deployment'

After a six-month inquiry, the defence select committee found the potential side-effects were clearly highlighted by manufacturers Roche, but there was "strong anecdotal evidence" that the stringent conditions laid down for prescription were often disregarded. Committee chairman Dr Julian Lewis said: "It seems quite clear that not only is the MoD unable to follow the manufacturer's guidelines for prescribing the drug in all instances, but a number of troops discard their Lariam rather than risk its potentially dangerous side-effects. "It is our firm conclusion that there is neither the need, nor any justification for continuing to issue this medication to service personnel unless they can be individually assessed, in accordance with the manufacturers' requirements. "And most of the time that is simply impossible, when a sudden, mass deployment of hundreds of troops is necessary."

'Mad Monday'

The drug's use had had " absolutely devastating psychological effects" in a small minority of cases," he told the BBC's Today Programme, and: "In a larger minority of cases there are disturbed nights, damaged sleep, psychological ideas that are unsettling and dangerous." "In reality the whole experience has been deeply unpleasant. So much so that phrases like 'mad Monday' or 'crazy Tuesday' are used amongst the armed forces when this stuff has been doled out in the past." The inquiry came after BBC Radio 4's Today programme revealed that a senior military medic had called on ministers to prescribe an alternative drug until it was clear that Lariam was safe.

'I kept thinking about hanging myself'
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Deckel · May 25, 2016

Vapor rub is supposed to be pretty decent at repelling skeeters. Something to do with the Eucalyptus.

waltky · Jul 19, 2016

Global warming Not Expected to Boost Malaria in West Africa...

Study: Climate Change Not Expected to Boost Malaria in West Africa
July 18, 2016 - Our climate is changing. And it is having significant effects on the world around us. From threats of extinction for many species to cities submerged in rising ocean waters, there are many concerns. But one important effect often gets lost in discussions of climate changes impact: disease transmission. A new study, in Nature Climate Change, models the long-term effects of climate change on malaria transmission in West Africa. And for once, the results arent all bad.

A necessary evil

In West Africa, subsistence farming relies on the regional monsoons. These heavy rains, combined with the flat landscape, also provide female mosquitoes ample puddles where they can lay their eggs. The temperatures are also just right for the mosquitoes to live a full life -- two months during which they can bite people and pass on parasites, including the plasmodium parasite which causes malaria. The location of water pools after monsoons is the driving process for malaria transmission in West Africa. Arne Bomblies, now an associate professor at the University of Vermont, painstakingly measured the temperature, location and size of these pools during his graduate work, enduring the heat and the nausea associated with malaria prevention pills.

Researcher and field assistant taking measurements on a puddle in Zindarou, southwestern Niger.

For her graduate work, Teresa Yamana incorporated Bomblies hydrological data into models that combined the best West African climate predictions, mosquito behaviors and detailed information about the land. We really look into a lot of detail. Its not just amount of rainfall that matters its when it happens and what is the pattern of rainfall and how do these relate to the specific water pools that mosquitos need to breed, Yamana, now a postdoctoral researcher at Columbia University, tells VOA. Most models that look at the climate effects on malaria transmission do not take into account the water pooling characteristics of the regions. They also mostly focus on the short term effects over a decade or so. The model Yamana developed predicted the burden fifty years from now. And the results were optimistic. The combination of temperatures warming to levels higher than those beneficial to mosquitoes and lower amounts of predicted rainfall act to maintain or decrease the malaria burden in West Africa.

Determining the malaria burden elsewhere

Bomblies and Yamana both hope that this process of including the hydrological characteristics of a region into malaria transmission models will be used elsewhere, although they note that the models cannot be used as is. They would need to be adapted to the terrain, mosquito ecology and hydrology of the region of interest. And this would be complicated for regions such as East Africa. Malaria burden is of particular concern in East Africa. The worry is that rising temperatures will cause malaria to spread into regions where previously, it was too cold for mosquitoes to breed. Andrew Githeko, a research scientist at the Kenya Medical Research Institute in Nairobi, tells VOA that the complicated topography of East Africa would require a significant change to the models before they could be used in this region. Andy Morse is a professor of climate impacts in the School of Environmental Sciences at the University of Liverpool. He stressed to VOA that this study predicts a reduction in the malaria burden in West Africa over the next 50 years, a much longer period of time than most studies. So he says regional authorities should still continue their attempts to control and prevent malaria transmission.

The monsoon season in West Africa usually occurs between May and October, though recently it has gotten more difficult to predict.

Although the long-term outlook appears optimistic, Yamana and Bomblies point out that climate change will have many other impacts on the region. Bomblies notes that food scarcity is the utmost concern of people in West Africa. During his fieldwork, a serious famine caused a food shock there. This illustrated to him just how vulnerable the people of West Africa are to these changes in rainfall, which his models predict are going to decrease in the future. While it might be sort of good news that malaria isnt going to get worse in West Africa, he cautions, it by no means, means that theres going to be no issue with climate change in West Africa.

http://www.voanews.com/content/climate-change-malaria/3423296.html
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politicalove · Aug 12, 2016

I do remember, without any fondness, of ANY help from the "WHO" people when I was in the Peace Corps!

waltky · Sep 8, 2016

A single protein target that appears to be the diseases weakness...

Scientists Discover Malaria Achilles Heel
September 07, 2016 - Scientists appear to have discovered malarias Achilles heel, a weakness common to the multiple stages of malaria infection. In doing so, they have found a compound that cured mice of the disease.

Once its entered the body through the bite of an infected mosquito, the malaria parasite, P. falciparum, behaves as a unique organism as it goes through three phases during its life cycle. Experts say most treatments are aimed at only one stage or another. Over time, the parasite can become resistant to therapy, sometimes as quickly as within one year. But researchers at the Broad Institute of Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University have identified a single protein target that appears to be the diseases weakness, according to senior researcher Stuart Schreiber, a founding member of the biomedical institution.

Malaria protein

We did discover a novel protein thats made by the parasite, thats needed for all three phases of its life cycle, and a series of novel compounds that potently inhibit this protein," he said. "And we could show in an infected animal that we could kill the parasite in all three phases. Schreiber and colleagues published their findings in the journal Nature. After discovering the protein, researchers screened a unique library of 100,000 small molecules, from which they synthesized about a dozen compounds that they tested in infected mice. The molecules appear to stop the production of this protein in all of malaria's life stages, effectively killing the disease. The mice were disease-free for a month, a length of time considered to be a cure. When they tried to infect other mice with the blood of the treated rodents, the animals did not become infected with malaria.

A woman carrying a baby holds a treated mosquito net during a malaria prevention action at Ajah in Eti Osa East district of Lagos, Nigeria

The compound that scientists tested was a one-time oral treatment. Schreiber was quick to caution that what works in a mouse is not necessarily effective in humans. But he is hopeful. I am the eternal optimist," he said. "On the other hand, I do know that whats ahead is extremely challenging and full of unknowns that can only be addressed by marching forward and running the key experiments." The experiments include seeing how well each of the 12 compounds works, for how long, and whether resistance develops with any of the promising agents. In theory, Schreiber said a drug that works in all three stages of malaria could be taken at any point in the disease cycle, as a treatment and even as a way to prevent the disease. The researchers note that individuals can remain infectious even while undergoing treatment. So their infection can be spread to someone else through a mosquito bite. Information about the anti-malaria compounds is being made freely available to other researchers through an online database. The library contains compounds designed and housed at the Broad Institute that are not usually found in the arsenals of pharmaceutical companies.

Malaria infects over 200 million people each year. Once it has infected a human host, the malaria parasite evolves through a number of unique stages, from initial blood infection to liver infiltration where the parasite matures and reenters the blood stream. The parasite then goes on to infect and destroy red blood cells, releasing thousands of daughter parasites that invade other blood cells, continuing the cycle of reproduction and infection. It is during this later blood stage when symptoms of malaria occur, including very high fever, overwhelming sweating, debilitating nausea and diarrhea. Over half a million people do not survive, mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa. The research by Schreiber and colleagues was funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. A Japanese drug company, Eisai, has shown an interest in helping to further develop the experimental malaria treatment.

http://www.voanews.com/a/scientists-discover-malaria-achilles-heel/3497777.html
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Deadly Scrub Typhus Bacteria Found on Island Off Chile
September 07, 2016 Scrub typhus, a deadly disease common in Southeast Asia and spread by microscopic biting mites known as chiggers, has now taken hold in a part of South America and may have become endemic there, scientists said Wednesday.

The tropical disease, which kills at least 140,000 people a year in the Asia-Pacific region, has been confirmed in a cluster of cases on a large island off Chile, 12,000 kilometers from its usual haunts on the other side of the Pacific. Scrub typhus has been known of for years, and the bacteria that cause it were first identified in Japan in 1930. Chiggers transmit the bacteria, Orientia tsutsugamushi, and they spread through the lymphatic fluid. Those infected find the illness can begin quite suddenly, with shaking chills, fever, severe headache, infection of the mucus membrane in the eyes, and lymph node swelling. Until 2006, scrub typhus was thought to be limited to an area called the "tsutsugamushi triangle," from Pakistan in the west to far eastern Russia in the east to northern Australia in the south.

Wider distribution?

But writing in The New England Journal of Medicine, researchers from Britain's Oxford University and the Pontificia Universidad Católica and Universidad del Desarrollo in Chile said the cases found off Chile's mainland "suggest there may be a much wider global distribution than previously understood." In 2006, two cases of scrub typhus were found outside the triangle. One, in the Middle East, was caused by a previously unrecorded bacteria related to tsutsugamushi and named Orientia Chuto. The second was found on Chiloe island, just off mainland Chile.

A fisherman walks on the shore of the fishing village Quetalmahue in Chile's Chiloe island, May 10, 2016. Scrub typhus has been confirmed in a cluster of cases on the island, far from places it usually strikes.

In January 2015 and again in early 2016, three more cases were discovered in Ancud, on the northern coast of Chiloe. "Scrub typhus is a common disease but a neglected one," said Paul Newton, director of the Lao-Oxford-Mahosot Hospital Wellcome Trust Research Unit, which collaborated in the study. "Given that it is known to cause approximately a million clinical cases, and kills at least 140,000 people each year, this evidence of an even bigger burden of disease in another part of the world highlights the need for more research and attention to it."

http://www.voanews.com/a/deadly-scrub-typhus-bacteria-found-island-chile/3498400.html
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Woolley · Sep 8, 2016

I was one day away from dying of malaria in Dar way back in 82. It took me about three days of absolute torture before I finally took the advice of the guys at the YMCA where I stayed and went to the doctor. He said I was very, very close to dying. Gave me massive doses of chloroquin, I was better within an hour or so but man, it was rough. I was not really over it for a few days. I had flashbacks for years afterwards. Yes, I took the prophylactics and I had a net but those little bustards always get you sooner or later.

waltky · Oct 22, 2016

Neighbors used to make a tea out of old cigarette butts to kill garden bugs...

Tobacco Plants Found Capable of Producing Malaria Drug
October 20, 2016 - Scientists say they have figured out a way to use tobacco plants to produce artemisinin, a highly effective anti-malaria drug.

Malaria infects an estimated 200 million people each year, resulting in 400,000 deaths. The drug artemisinin is sometimes used to treat the mosquito-borne illness, clearing the parasite from the bloodstream within 48 hours, according to experts. However, it is very expensive. Artemisinin comes from an herbal plant grown in China called sweet wormwood. It takes 18 months to grow, extract and produce only a small amount of the effective compound, according to bioengineer Shashi Kumar at the U.N. International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology in New Delhi. “That increases the cost of this drug, and the people who are suffering most and poor are not able to afford this costly drug," Kumar said. "That is why we are looking at some source which can be grown everywhere, like the African continent or the Indian continent, easily. Tobacco is that crop.”

A farm worker harvests tobacco leaves at a farm in Harare, Zimbabwe, March 3, 2015. Scientists have found that malaria-fighting compound artemisinin can be grown in tobacco plants.

Kumar and colleagues have figured out a way to insert wormwood genes into tobacco plants. Tobacco is a hardy plant and when the gene is inserted, a precursor compound of artemisinin shows up in its broad sturdy leaves. Scientists at the U.N. Center tested the effectiveness of tobacco-produced artemisinin on rodents infected with Plasmodium berghei, a parasite that causes malaria in rats and is often used as an experimental model for genetic engineered treatments. Kumar said the artemisinin from tobacco leaves was more effective than the currently available drug. But more tests are needed to see whether the tobacco-derived artemisinin drug is equally effective against P. falciparum, the parasite that causes the most dangerous form of the disease in humans.

А malaria worker is seen carrying a traditional medicine kit in a village near Pailin, Cambodia, Aug. 29, 2009. Scientists have found that conventional kits could be replaced with artemisinin, a cheap but highly effective anti-malaria drug.

Kumar and colleagues are now looking at ways to grow the anti-malaria drug in other, more edible plants. “What we can do [is] we put this drug into edible plants like lettuce or spinach, where you can just make a powder, put that powder in a capsule and the capsule can be stored like in medical stores or anywhere from where the people can easily buy at a very cheap or very affordable price.” News about tobacco-grown artemisinin was published in the Cell press journal Molecular Plant. Kumar says no big tobacco companies have come forward volunteering to produce artemisinin. However, he is hopeful, given that the technology will be made freely available, that there will be some takers.

http://www.voanews.com/a/tobacco-malaria-drug-artemisinin/3559777.html
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Fighting Malaria by Changing the Flavor of Humans
October 12, 2016 | WASHINGTON — Have you ever noticed how some people seem to be bitten by mosquitoes more than anyone else?

Apparently some people taste better to malaria mosquitoes than others, and scientists are trying to figure out why, so they can turn that information into a repellent to protect us all from malaria. Such a repellent might be able to prevent some of the 214 million cases of malaria the World Health Organization says occurred in 2015, mostly in Africa. About 440,000 people, most of them children, died of malaria, the WHO said. Researchers from Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine have found evidence of what attracts malaria mosquitoes to humans for a blood meal, and smell isn’t the only thing.

Christopher Potter, assistant professor of neuroscience, is working on the sensing ability of mosquitoes. Unlike humans who have one nose, Potter says, mosquitoes have three pairs of noses. These include two antennae and two maxillary palps, which are fuzzy appendages below the insect’s head and are parallel to the feeding needle, Potter said. At the end of that feeding needle or proboscis, are the labella, two small regions with neurons that recognize smells and tastes. “So this suggests that the mosquito brain might also have a region of the brain that’s dedicated to flavor, to combining smell and taste,” he said. “And that is something they are very likely doing when they are actually landing on us and looking around for a place to bite,” he added. “They are actually smelling us and tasting us, and perhaps that means they are also flavoring us and that is part of what they are looking for when they’re trying to decide who they should bite from and where they are going to bite.”

Potter and his colleagues made this discovery about the malaria mosquito, Anopheles gambiae, by making certain neurons in the insect’s noses fluoresce, or glow green. They wanted to trace those green-glowing external sensory neurons to the brain. The green-glowing neurons lighted up in the brain when they were exposed to complex odors. These help the mosquito distinguish human blood from that of other warm-blooded animals. It’s the first time scientists were able to pinpoint the exact location of the senses of smell and taste in mosquitoes.

By studying the smell- and taste-detecting neurons, the finding suggests that it’s possible mosquitoes like not only the smell of humans but our flavor as well. “The long-term goal is to identify better repellents, things that will be better, safer, cheaper and more effective that we can manufacture on a larger scale and distribute it across the world.” Currently the insect repellent DEET is widely used in malaria endemic regions, but it’s not 100 percent effective, and a fair amount of the chemical needs to be applied to the skin to repel mosquitoes. The research was published in the journal Nature Communications.

http://www.voanews.com/a/fighting-malaria-by-changing-the-flavor-of-humans/3547023.html
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Woolley · Oct 22, 2016

smallblue said: ↑

The WHO estimates that in 2010 there were 219 million cases of malaria resulting in 660,000 deaths

That means ~0.3% of those infected with malaria resulted in death (much less than the flu which is ~10.0% world wide on a good year). And of these deaths ~90% occurred in Africa because they lack the basic access to diagnose and treat it paired with an environment in which it thrives.

Now imagine 219 million people being infected with Ebola where even with treatment it is unlikely you will survive.

It's the difference between a ~90% mortality rate with treatment of a healthy individual infected with Ebola and a near 0% mortality rate with treatment of a healthy individual infected with Malaria.

This is why it needs to contained.
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I too got malaria and survived. I got it in Tanzania in 82. It was not fun but heavy doses of quinine fixed it. The doctor told me that if I had waited another day, I would have died. Thankfully, I did not.

waltky · Nov 4, 2016

Clue to Track Resistance to Malaria Drug Found...

Scientists Find Clue to Track Resistance to Malaria Drug
November 04, 2016 Scientists have discovered genetic markers in malaria parasites linked to resistance to the key anti-malarial medicine piperaquine, and say their work could help doctors and health officials monitor and limit the spread of such resistance.

In research published in the Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, the team also said a simple test using blood taken from a finger pinprick could show whether a malaria patient has parasites with the genetic markers, allowing doctors to prescribe an alternative treatment. Resistance to piperaquine recently emerged in Cambodia and has led to the failure of malaria treatment there. This and other spreading areas of drug-resistance are threatening global efforts to eliminate the mosquito-borne disease. Piperaquine is a powerful drug used in many parts of the world in combination with another anti-malarial drug called artemisinin.

Resistance to artemisinin emerged around seven years ago in Southeast Asia, but until recently the combination of the two drugs had successfully killed the malaria parasites there. Now, however, the emergence of piperaquine resistance in Cambodia has led to treatment failing altogether. These malaria parasites are now resistant to both drugs, and since they are no longer being killed, resistance to both drugs will spread, said Roberto Amato, who co-led the research at Britains Sanger Institute. According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 200 million people worldwide were infected with malaria in 2015, and nearly half a million people died from the disease. The vast majority of those killed by it are children younger than 5.

А malaria worker carries a traditional medicine kit in a village near Pailin, Cambodia, Aug. 29, 2009. Scientists have found that conventional kits could be replaced with artemisinin, but now resistance to that drug is failing to stop malaria.

Malaria is treatable if it is caught early, but growing drug resistance is becoming a major problem in many areas. For this study, Amatos team worked with Rick Fairhurst, a professor at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases at the United States National Institute of Health, and carried out what is known as a genomewide association study to look at the genetic basis behind piperaquine resistance.

They looked at about 300 samples from Cambodia, analyzing thousands of variations in the DNA sequence of the parasites and comparing these across samples with different levels of resistance to piperaquine. By studying the genomes of these parasites we found two genetic markers that are linked with piperaquine resistance, Amato said. Not only can we now use these markers to monitor the spread of the drug resistant malaria, they will also help towards understanding as much as possible about the biology and evolution of the [malaria] parasite.

http://www.voanews.com/a/scientists-find-clue-to-track-resistance-to-malaria-drug/3580383.html
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waltky · Dec 13, 2016

Strong Progress in Fighting Malaria, but still Big Funding Gaps...

WHO Reports Strong Progress in Fighting Malaria, Warns of Big Funding Gaps
December 12, 2016 In its latest annual report, the World Health Organization says strong progress has been made in the fight against malaria, particularly in offering effective control programs to children and pregnant women in Africa.

The organization, however, warns funding has plateaued, putting targets for tackling the disease at risk. The WHOs 2016 report highlights significant achievements in the global fight against malaria. Mortality rates for the annual number of deaths from malaria have been halved in the past 16 years to just over 400,000.

A doctor tests a child for malaria at a hospital in Arusha, Tanzania, May 11, 2016. Children under the age of five account for an estimated 70 percent of all malaria deaths.

Programs to distribute insecticide-treated mosquito nets are the cornerstone of malaria prevention efforts in Africa, says Dr. Jo Lines of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The progress is that now 53 percent, just over half that target population and it's a very large target population in some very difficult to reach places. Fifty-three percent of those people now report sleeping under an insecticide-treated net, said Lines said. That's fantastic."

Mosquitoes becoming resistant

As more insecticide is used to prevent malaria, however, the mosquitoes that transmit the disease are becoming resistant. "Insecticide resistance is spreading very rapidly. Now that we're achieving those high levels of coverage, it's spreading more rapidly than ever and becoming really strong in some places, said Lines. So there are places in Africa that now report that their mosquitoes can stand one thousand times the dose of the original population.

Workers look for holes in mosquito netting at the A to Z Textile Mills factory producing insecticide-treated nets in Arusha, Tanzania.

Diagnostic testing for malaria has also increased sharply in the last five years allowing for the rapid prescription of life-saving treatment, particularly for children. "What's clear now is that we need to do a much more differentiated set of interventions, said Lines. We need to tailor what we do to each place.

Funding has waned
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waltky · Jan 5, 2017

Genetically Engineered Vaccine Prevents Malaria in Mice...

Genetically Engineered Vaccine Prevents Malaria in Mice, Findings Show
January 04, 2017 - A genetically engineered malaria vaccine has been shown to prevent the disease in mice, researchers say. The findings offer hope of halting the illness in humans, as well as stopping transmission of the mosquito-borne disease.

Researchers at the Center for Infectious Disease Research at the University of Washington in Seattle, in conjunction with the Fred Hutchison Cancer Research Center, have developed a vaccine that uses the entire malaria-causing parasite called P. falciparum to stimulate a protective immune response. Researchers weakened the malaria parasite by knocking out three genes that the organism needs in order to replicate in the human liver and re-emerge in the bloodstream to cause illness. "[Removing] these three genes make sure the parasite cannot develop to the next stage of infection, which occurs in the blood, which causes all of the disease and death associated with malaria," said CIDRs Stefan Kappe, one of the main authors of the study, published Wednesday in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

Normally, after the parasite infects the liver, it leaves the organ to infect red blood cells, where billions of disease-causing parasites are produced. In the study, researchers identified the three genes tucked within the parasite's enormous genome that allow it to enter the bloodstream. By knocking out those genes, says Kappe, the altered parasite remained confined to the liver and the immune system began churning out protective antibodies. "So, it infects the liver that is asymptomatic so that's OK, and it doesn't cause any specific damage to the liver but it stimulates your immune system [to fight], Kappe said. So, [the parasite] stops right there, and we call it 'check in, but it doesn't check out.'"

Mosquitoes live inside a stock cage in a mosquito laboratory in London

In a Phase 1 clinical trial testing the vaccine's safety, the neutralized parasite was injected into 10 healthy human volunteers, where it stimulated a strong immune response without causing malaria. Investigators then injected mice with the vaccine containing genetically engineered parasites, and exposed those mice to whole parasites that had not been altered. The vaccine completely protected the animals from malaria, according to researchers. The most recent statistics by the World Health Organization show that an estimated 212 million people are infected with malaria every year, and some 429,000 mostly children in sub-Saharan Africa die of the disease.

Kappe said the experimental vaccine has the potential to prevent transmission, as well. "If you block the parasite in the liver, he said, you do not get disease, but you also don't get transmission of the parasite to the next person because the mosquito has to pick up parasite from the bloodstream. But if the parasite can never make it to the bloodstream, it cannot be transmitted to another person." Researchers are preparing to test the experimental vaccine in humans this year to see whether they, like the mice, are protected against malaria when exposed to the whole, unaltered parasite.

http://www.voanews.com/a/geneticall...nts-malaria-mice-research-shows/3663253.htmlp
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waltky · Feb 3, 2017

Malaria mosquitoes becoming insecticide-resistant...

Malaria-carrying Mosquitoes Becoming Resistant to Bed Nets in Southern Africa
February 02, 2017 | WASHINGTON Malaria-carrying mosquitoes are becoming resistant to the insecticide used in bed nets to prevent the disease. Researchers say it is important to stay ahead of the resistance to avoid what they are calling a public health catastrophe.

Bed nets treated with inexpensive pyrethroid insecticides are the main defense against biting, malaria-carrying mosquitoes, and they have significantly cut down on the number of cases. The World Health Organization reports malaria infected an estimated 212 million people in 2015, killing some 429,000 of them. That reflects a 21 percent drop in the incidence of between 2010 and 2015.

But a new study, published in the journal PLoS Genetics, found that the primary mosquito that harbors the parasite in southern Africa, Anopheles funestus, is rapidly becoming resistant to the insecticide. In at least one country, Mozambique, researchers discovered that 100 percent of A. funestus remained alive after direct exposure to the chemical. Charles Wondji, a mosquito geneticist at the School of Tropical Medicine in Liverpool, England, notes that resistance to pyrethroid insecticides occurred rapidly, in about eight years.

Resistant gene identified

Wondji said scientists were able to identify the resistance gene in the mosquito. Speaking with VOA from Cameroon, he said that will give scientists an important tool to monitor the spread of insect resistance throughout the continent. That form of the gene is now very prevalent in southern Africa with the risk that if we do nothing there's a chance that those control measures won't work against those type of mosquitoes, he said.

An Afghan girl sleeps beneath a mosquito net at her home in Kabul, Afghanistan

By having identified the responsible gene, Wondji said it will be possible to stay ahead of what he calls the resistance curve in places where insecticides are starting to fail to kill the mosquitoes. He added other more expensive insecticides can then be deployed to treat the bed nets. He mentioned a compound called PDO that targets the gene, killing the mosquitoes. Wondji said control efforts, such as eliminating mosquito larvae that inhabit standing pools of water, can also be redoubled. Wondji noted other species of malaria-carrying mosquitoes, like Anopheles gambiae, are starting to become resistant to pyrethriods, although that is occurring through a different biological mechanism.

More studies needed

Therefore, Wondji, said it's important to study all species of malaria-carrying mosquitoes in order to implement appropriate and successful malaria management strategies. In another just-released study in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases, scientists in Thailand have found widespread malaria parasite resistance to artemisinin and combination therapies using artemisinin, considered the gold standard treatment. They say the development threatens global malaria control and eradication efforts.

http://www.voanews.com/a/malaria-mosquito-resistant-bed-nets-southern-africa/3703847.html
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waltky · Feb 18, 2017

Malaria vaccines look promising...

Experimental Vaccines Offer Promise in War on Malaria
February 16, 2017 | WASHINGTON Two vaccine candidates have been shown to be effective in one case, 100 percent effective in preventing malaria.

The biotech firm Sanaria Inc. of Rockville, Maryland, developed the vaccines. They prime the immune system against the malaria parasite by introducing live but weakened sporozoites the earliest spore stage of the parasite which infected mosquitoes inject into the body, beginning the cycle of disease. Both vaccines target Plasmodium falciparum, the most common and deadly form of the disease. In the more successful of the two trials, carried out in Germany, varying doses of the live-attenuated vaccine, weakened by a chemotherapy agent, were injected into 27 healthy volunteers, while another group of 15 was given a placebo. The participants were then exposed to P. falciparum parasites between eight and 10 weeks after the last vaccine dose.

Two children stricken with malaria rest at the local hospital in the small village of Walikale, Congo.

Stephen Hoffman, Sanaria's chief executive and scientific officer, said results from nine of the participants who received the highest vaccine dose surprised the researchers. "We got 100 percent protection against malaria at 10 weeks, 2½ weeks after the last dose of the vaccine," he said. "That is really beginning to look like something quite extraordinary and that's never been done before." The results of the study were published in the journal Nature.

Reinfection test

A second trial involving another sporozoite vaccine, weakened by radiation, was carried out in Mali. It tested whether the vaccine prevented reinfection among people who had already been exposed to malaria. In that study, 66 percent of those in the treatment group became reinfected with malaria within six months after they were vaccinated, compared with 93 percent of participants in the placebo group. While far from ideal, Hoffman called the results a good first step, saying, "This is the highest level of efficacy against malaria infection ever seen in a vaccine trial in Africa." The results of that trial were reported simultaneously in the journal The Lancet Infectious Diseases.

Hoffman thinks Sanaria's vaccines show more promise than others because they use the entire sporozoite to ramp up the immune system. He says other vaccine candidates use only a few P. falciparum proteins out of some 5,000 to try to get a good immune response against the malaria parasite, which he believes is a less effective strategy. He says more clinical trials of both vaccines are planned throughout Africa, including in Mali, Burkina Faso, Kenya, Equatorial Guinea and Tanzania. Hoffman hopes Sanaria can develop a product for mass vaccination campaigns that can "immunize the entire population in a geographically defined area so that one can halt transmission and eliminate the parasite." Malaria is a leading global killer, especially among children in sub-Saharan Africa. The World Health Organization estimates there are 214 million cases of malaria each year and that the disease causes 438,000 deaths worldwide.

http://www.voanews.com/a/vaccines-offer-promise-malaria/3727982.html
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waltky · Mar 1, 2017

Dat's why Granny always tellin' Uncle Ferd to plug uppa holes inna walls...

Study: Better Housing a Powerful Tool for Malaria Prevention
February 28, 2017 - Improving housing conditions may provide a boost to malaria prevention at a time when other efforts may be losing steam, according to new research.

As Africa rapidly moves away from traditional mud-and-thatch housing, experts see a chance for architects and urban planners to join the fight against the disease. Bed nets and indoor insecticide spraying have been extremely effective in curtailing malaria. Rates are down by about 40 percent worldwide. But these efforts are not enough. More than 400,000 people died of the disease in 2015, mostly African children, according to the World Health Organization. And mosquitoes are becoming resistant to the insecticides.

A Sudanese woman suffering from malaria sits inside her makeshift house in Golo, Fashoda county in Upper Nile State

At the same time, researchers are seeing a transition across Africa. Traditional mud-walled, thatch-roofed housing is being replaced by more modern construction, with concrete walls and metal or tile roofs. Housing is also changing as the continent experiences among the world's fastest rates of urbanization. As these transitions take place, "We have an opportunity to tap into the changes that are ongoing in many parts of Africa in order to build healthier housing," says University of Oxford epidemiologist Lucy Tusting, lead author of the new study in the journal PLOS Medicine.

Housing as a public health tool

Most mosquitoes that carry the malaria parasite bite indoors at night. So better-quality housing, with fewer gaps in the walls and ceiling where insects can get in, should help prevent the disease. Using housing as a public health tool against malaria is not a new idea. Screened windows and doors were the very first effective technique used to prevent the disease in the early 20th century. But there hasn't been much research on the subject. Tusting and colleagues looked at health and demographic surveys from 21 countries. They found that children living in modern-construction homes were 9-to-14 percent less likely to have malaria than those living in traditional housing.

That's similar to the level of protection insecticide-treated bed nets provided. Children sleeping under bed nets had 15-to-16 percent lower odds of malaria infection than those who did not. That's not to diminish the importance of bed nets, Tusting says. As Africa's population expands rapidly, she adds, "We can leverage those changes. But to do so, it's important for health specialists to reach beyond the health sector" and work with architects, urban planners and policymakers to build malaria prevention into the habitat of the continent's growing cities.

http://www.voanews.com/a/better-housing-malaria-prevention/3743172.html
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See also:

Common Bacteria Might Help Control Disease-Carrying Insects
February 27, 2017 | WASHINGTON By using a common bacteria, scientists have figured out a way to potentially sterilize disease-carrying mosquitoes. That could make it possible to control the mosquito that spreads Zika and Dengue.

Wolbachia is a common bacteria that has the ability to infect up to 70 percent of the world's insect species. It has evolved in different ways some insects even rely on it for their existence, but in others, it plays a parasitic role and can interfere with the viability of eggs.

Two genes may hold the key

Unfortunately, say experts, it doesn't infect many disease-carrying mosquitoes. But researchers may have found a way to use Wolbachia's sterilizing power on mosquitos that carry Dengue, and Zika. "It's kind of been the issue with the Wolbachia field is that all of the insects that are really, really medically relevant don't have their own Wolbachia infection, said John Bechmann, an entomologist at Yale University in Connecticut. So that's one reason why this is such an important discovery ... one thing that limited the field is people have always tried to make these fake or non-natural infections that can infect these mosquitoes," said Bechmann. "Now we don't have to do that. We can just put the genes in."

Researchers at Yale and Vanderbilt University in Tennessee have discovered two genes in Wolbachia that might make Aedes aegypti, the mosquito that carries Zika and Dengue, sterile. Experiments so far have been successfully performed in fruit flies, and researchers are optimistic that it will work in mosquitoes.

Two strategies outlined

The scientists reported success in two strategies to stop the spread of Zika and Dengue. One method was to flood the environment with male mosquitos carrying Wolbachia. When infected males and uninfected females mate, Wolbachia kills any eggs the female is carrying. The other approach that worked was introduce male and female mosquitos, both infected with Wolbachia, into a mosquito population.

Over time, the Wolbachia-infected mosquitos replaced the Zika- and Dengue-infected mosquitos by making them sterile. Two companion articles on the Wolbachia gene discovery were published in the journals Nature and Nature Microbiology. Bechmann says controlling these diseases may one day be as simple as breeding Wolbachia-carrying mosquitos in captivity then releasing into the wild.

Funding needed

"The problem has always been figuring out systems that work well in mosquitoes and this is one that's going to be great for that, said Bechmann, who added that the technology also has the potential to work with Anopheles gambiae, the mosquito that carries malaria. Bechmann and colleagues are in the process of trying to get funding to conduct the research in mosquitoes. Because the mosquitoes are genetically modified, Bechmann says his biggest concern is overcoming regulatory hurdles to permit the release of altered, sterilized mosquitoes.

http://www.voanews.com/a/common-bacteria-might-help-control-disease-carrying-insects/3742554.html
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