DISARMING MALARIA As the first children receive a dose of malaria vaccine in a new phase III clinical trial, other researchers are hard at work making genetically modified mosquitoes and interpreting satellite data to keep this prevalent killer at bay.
Image: DAVE POLAND/PATH MALARIA VACCINE INITIATIVE
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Despite having been subdued in many parts of the world by the 1970s, malaria—and the mosquitoes that spread it—has come back in force, now killing at least a million people worldwide each year. An efficient illness, the parasite has become largely resistant to the popular drug chloroquine, and many mosquitoes have similarly developed resistance to the pesticide DDT. Most of its casualties are children, and of the hundreds of millions who survive the disease, many are left disabled and vulnerable to reinfection from the parasite's liver-dwelling cells.
Searching for a way to solve such a prevalent problem has led researchers to take a variety of approaches, ranging from using satellite data to map weather conditions to tampering with the DNA of the mosquitoes themselves.
Diseases based on a zoonotic (animal-to-human) vector, including malaria and other killers such as hantavirus, require a nuanced understanding of the transmission cycle. "You have to understand the vector, you have to understand its habits, you have to understand the local cultural setting," said Phil Thuma, managing director of the Malaria Institute at Macha (MIAM) in Zambia, in a video presentation shown during a Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute (JHMRI) summit on Thursday.
By hunting for a wide range of ways to keep malaria at bay, researchers are hopeful that they can finally vanquish the killer that has likely plagued humans for at least tens of thousands of years. "It's important for us to have an arsenal of control methods," said George Dimopoulos, an associate professor of molecular microbiology and immunology at JHMRI, at the summit. "We can only control malaria through a combination of a variety of approaches."
Aside from scientific advances, however, other societal progress is needed in many places. Reduction of poverty and increased access to health care may help spread basic preventive measures such as malarial screening and bed nets treated with pyrethroid chemical insecticides. Political instability is yet another roadblock to reaching many of those who need it most. "There are political situations in the world today where one can't go in and set up a hospital," said Gregory Glass, a professor of epidemiology and of molecular microbiology and immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. "Until we can resolve that, we're not going to be facing eradication."
Sungano Mharakurwa, scientific director of MIAM, for one, is "optimistic that one day our institute will be obsolete."
Slide Show: Squashing Malaria: Advances in Research and Prevention
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9 Comments
Add CommentThere's actually a fairly easy way to keep mosquitos down - DDT. It worked well until some idiot wrote a book full of lies about it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisi work in the indoor residual spraying field, and soccerdad, i and my colleagues have no interest in advocacy by rude and ignorant folks like you. now read and learn:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this1- some IDIOT did not write a book. it was a scientist. not one, many.
2- DDT is only one of many insecticides, not all dangerous organochlorines like DDT.
3- some mosquitoes are resistant to DDT due to massive overuse in agriculture. so DDT not always effective
4- same overuse caused and causes serious health effects on humans, cattle, and environment
Malaria was subdued by the 1970's for a reason - DDT. This "scientist" misrepresented her own work in Silent Spring. Her main argument against DDT - thinning of eggshells - has not been demonstrated at the levels the birds are actually exposed to. The banning of DDT is a politcal decision with real consequences to the 1 million or so people killed each year by malaria. Why remove a tool from the box for no reason.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere are none so blind as those who will not see.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSungano Mharakurwa, scientific director of MIAM, for one, is "optimistic that one day our institute will be obsolete."
Let me hasten the process. Using simple chemisrtry Jim Humble discovered that 15 drops of a 28% solution of Sodium Chlorite (NaClO2) mixed with one teaspoon of pure lemon or lime juice or 5% pure unfiltered apple cider vinegar, turns into Chlorine Dioxide after waiting for three minutes. This can then be added to four ounces of water or pure unfiltered apple juice (without added vitamin C) and then drunk. This is repeated after one hour. Working in Africa and with the cooperation of health officials, before and after blood tests determined the complete eradication of the Malaria parasite from Malaria sufferers. It worked on other pathogens as well including microbes and viruses. And, it did no harm to the person or to healthy cells and simbiotic organisms of the body. The WHO, CDC, NIH and other such bodies have worked to suppress these findings. Why? Can you say money? How about control? How about the stated goal of some to eliminate "useless eaters" from the planet?
"Useless eaters" are their words, was it then Republican Adviser Henry Kissinger's? Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
Although the term "useless eaters" began sometime after Malthus propagated his theories of overpopulation, this article is the thing that the Kissinger quote is drawn from. I doubt that the actual words were said, but the sentiment is the same. http://www.scribd.com/doc/7423676/NSSM-2&
Google the term for yourself. I know Cass Sunstein and others in the Obama Administration tend to agree.
I smelled hoax at the first when H1N1 came on the scene. Look at what is going on in the Ukraine. Officials say that it is H1N1 but others are saying it is a recombined mix produced by Baxter BioPharma Solutions, Inc from their laboratories in Ukraine. Studies of their vaccine show it to be bioweapon disquised as a vaccine. Watch this YouTube video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xlvfj-NOg0s&feature=player_embedded "Baxter's Ukraine Pneumonic Plague Virus is a BIOWEAPON". While you are there look at the other videos posted there.
In 1999 the American Society of Analytical Chemists stated that Chlorine Dioxide was the most powerful pathogen killer known to man and that it was much safer than chlorine. It is approved by the FDA for use in municipal water systems.
Chlorine, flourine and bromine block the bodies use of iodine, a key component of the immune system
=# i was in zambia 1979-88,and busy in med wards, and saw no blackwaterfever in Mansa General, just one case of fatal cerebral,and no deaths due to malaria per se. #In india i have been at the most deadliest agencies forest areas. # MALARIA IS NOT A KILLER in the sense. It is its sequelae that kill. the anemia,the sickle, the bilharzia, the huge spleen, the malnutrition, the reject on empty stomach,the gross underdosage by pharmacists over the counter, the quacks,the self medications, and the wonderful pharma makers of chloroquine tabs in single and combi packs of CQ base 150, 250, 500, 750, tablets that confuse the patient most of the times.=and the cost...with taxes and w/o tax the Generic are so cheap// . In Vietnam 1969-74 when every one was shouting CQ resistance, in KonTum i showed that simple CQ given in 12 tabs, NOT 10 tabs, [1 tab = 150 base]for a 60kg, over 3+1 days, 4-2---2--2--2- gets the parasite down by 72 hrs. //the dose is easy that way, 1 teaspoon 5mil syrup is 50mg base;to calculate teaspoons 2,1..1..1..1..see?//total dose 30mg/kg per person///....and of course, a suppressive dose for a few months till the nutrition and anemia are corrected.... =I took CQ US double dose red coated tabs two per week all the 5 years i was there. When i missed two weeks i did get Falcip which i cured myself w just CQ 6 double tabs.# and why talk of DDT, when these alethrins are in use?# and whose funny idea medicated impregnated mosquito nets, which no one uses in the field?# and the altemethers which are now used by all quacks indiscriminately in the hamlets??? and even Doctors prescribing for out-patient use? # And remember there are Immune, semi immune and nonimmune entities right within the malaria belts??# THERE IS NO NEED TO PANIC. Go steady and with all senses. Recognize a thing called CLINICAL MALARIA which needs NO slides but just a general look over. and give the full dose course IF you treat for clinical malaria, or slide proved malaria. and treat the Enteric fevers which show up.# [mbbs/1950, india.]
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thismy sungano forgot Cl is all over the body, Fl prevents Filaria, Bromine IV for skin,..Iodine for arthritis..............only use and misuse are the factors for you to advise field workers like me. and NaClO2 IS CHLORINE !!!!!...........and btw do you see all sites for malaria show the culex and not the beautiful anopheles?!!!
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisadd:carlton22 /nov2009/ recipe looks like a grandmom's concoction. why didnt jimhiumble [1902?!] take simple 'ClO2'? why didnt he publish in like SciAm? While agreeing that world bodies and Big Pharmas suppress unprofitable suggestions and discoveries, why didnt carlton22 and all the PublicHealth people and the lab teks involved there trumpet the findings? and make a scientific paper and send to all the 28 world malaria bodies? HE MAY DO IT EVEN NOW NOW and save souls.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHIV : carlton22's ClO2 works on all path's.?. "It worked on other pathogens as well including microbes and viruses. And, it did no harm to the person or to healthy cells and symbiotic organisms of the body." .......oh , could be. but we semi-scientific field workers need published accepted evidence in vitro and in vivo..# in the 1940's and to 60's we used to give safely Iodine IV [ neutral Iodine, Calcium w Iodine, SodSal w Iodine]for arthralgias w wonderful results. Now why not IV halogens for to kill or maime the HIV in the blood and body tissues?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI'm a member of the pan-African African Media & Malaria Research Network (AMMREN), also working itself to extinction. I'm Country Coordinator, Nigeria. In March, we met in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania to evaluate the INDEPTH Effectiveness and Safety Studies of Antimalarials in Africa (INESS) Project. Working Outline: -The Malaria eradication agenda and role of research.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe core issue is as Project Manager, Aziza Mwisongo, PhD, succinctly raised and answered, "Why do we join effectiveness and health systems studies together? Because efficacy under trial conditions is almost always greater than effectiveness in real-life health systems." Her top gear metaphor is "Driving with the brakes on: How interventions lose traction in health systems", with a case study from an ACT anti-malarial treatment scheme in Rufiji (in Tanzania) DSS (Decision support system) in 2006. It's a slope of a situation: Efficacy > Access > Diagnostics > Provider compliance > Patient adherence > Effectiveness (which showed a really poor quintile of 16%)
There are sore thumbs showing up strongly.
Malaria is Africa's greatest burden, but the least research into its eradication is taking place on the Continent. AMMREN is convinced an integral component of its resolution is to train and equip African journalists to better tell the African malaria Story.
Dr. Mwisongo asks, "What does this mean?" Simple: "Presently more traction can be gained by removing health system bottlenecks than by improving the efficacy of new drugs." The Goal is to go: From Efficacy to Effectiveness.
Efficacy: therapeutic effect (clinical and parasitological cure rate) of an intervention as determined in Phase III clinical trials or other studies when the intervention is provided by a researcher-driven process.
Effectiveness: the ultimate population effect of the intervention as determined in uncontrolled Phase IV trials and studies (post-marketing risks, benefits, and indications for optimal use) where the intervention is wholly provided by a non-researcher driven process in real world situations.
For this to happen, journalists -- who are MEDIAting Change -- must learn grassroots audience engagement techniques; any change cannot happen without a cooperative populace. AMMREN seeks support to run a project: Statistical Investigation Into Extant Malaria Knowledge, Attitudes And Beliefs In 10 African Countries
Aim: To Deduce Change Patterns over a 3-Year Period, for Constructing an Aggregate Picture of the Effectiveness of Existing Malaria Control and Management Regimens. www.ammren.org