More Malaria in Africa?

According to multiple news sources, scientists claim to have found evidence that a drug-resistant strain of malaria, which is prevalent in South East Asia, could spread to Africa. The team of researchers from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease in the US, lead by Dr Rick Fairhurst, have published their results in the National Communications journal.

In a laboratory setting, researchers successfully infected Africa-native malaria-carrying mosquitoes with the new strain of drug-resistant malaria (BBC News). The study reports that this spread is indeed possible and very probable due to the way in which this has happened with past strains of malaria.

2006 Prof. Frank Hadley Collins, Dir., Cntr. for Global Health and Infectious Diseases, Univ. of Notre Dame This 2006 image depicted a female Aedes aegypti mosquito as she was obtaining a blood-meal from a human host through her fascicle, which had penetrated the host skin, was reddening in color, reflecting the blood?s coloration through this tubular structure. In this case, what would normally be an unsuspecting host was actually the CDC?s biomedical photographer?s own hand, which he?d offered to the hungry mosquito so that she?d alight, and be photographed while feeding. As it would fill with blood, the abdomen would become distended, thereby, stretching the exterior exoskeletal surface, causing it to become transparent, and allowed the collecting blood to become visible as an enlarging intra-abdominal red mass, as is the case in PHIL# 9175, and 9176. As the primary vector responsible for the transmission of the Flavivirus Dengue (DF), and Dengue hemorrhagic fever (DHF), the day-biting Aedes aegypti mosquito prefers to feed on its human hosts. Ae. aegypti also plays a major role as a vector for another Flavivirus, "Yellow fever". Frequently found in its tropical environs, the white banded markings on the tarsal segments of its jointed legs, though distinguishing it as Ae. aegypti, are similar to some other mosquito species. Also note the lyre-shaped, silvery-white markings on its thoracic region as well, which is also a determining morphologic identifying characteristic.

This is very concerning, they say, and would have disastrous consequences for Africa. In 2013, 90% of malaria-related deaths worldwide took place in Africa (Daily Nation). With that being said, in the last 15 years, malaria-related deaths worldwide have decreased by 60% (VOANews). Scientists fear that the advances they have been making could be completely undermined by the spread of this new strain.

This particular strain was first discovered in Cambodia in 2008 (BBC News) and is now spreading all across South East Asia, with some reports saying it has been found as far away as at the eastern Indian border (Daily Nation).

The history of malaria has been plagued by drug-resistant strains of the parasite that develop after the introduction of these drugs. In the 50’s, the first drug against malaria, chloroquine, began to lose effectiveness against some strains of malaria. Its replacement, sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine, fell into the same situation soon thereafter, with resistance against the drug now being widespread (Daily Nation).

AKPYXB-Mosquito_2756123b

Just weeks ago, Dr. Youyou Tu won a Nobel prize for the discovery of the drug Artemisinin, which is now becoming ineffective against this new strain of malaria (VOANews).

However, Dr. Fairhurst believes that his results will stimulate an increase in malaria reduction efforts in South East Asia.

It seems that these new discoveries are a chilling slap in the face. The scientific world needs to accelerate any efforts in place to contain and treat these new strains of malaria that threaten to undo years of work worldwide. Scientists are afraid to see how this spread will continue and develop, and to be honest, so am I.

2 thoughts on “More Malaria in Africa?”

  1. Victoria Atkinson Scott

    Many studies, research, development and money is going into eliminating malaria and reducing it worldwide. There are two ‘core transmission reduction interventions’ and it is critical to understand the interaction between the different cases. An interesting section of this blog would have been how malaria intercepts and affects the immune system and immune responses. Another interesting topic to extend on is how the development or a worldwide vaccine is being developed along with the host / parasite relationship in different areas around the world since we talk about that a lot in class. Here is the center for disease and control prevention website: http://www.cdc.gov/malaria/tools_for_tomorrow/research_areas.html

  2. Michael Bliss

    The news in this post is very troubling. With a disease being this dynamic and able to become resistant to new drugs so often, it may become hard for scientists to keep up with the quickly evolving disease. Maybe the solution to this problem lies not in the treatment, but in the prevention. An increase in mosquito nets, bug repellant and possibly some form of mosquito trap would be helpful to slow the spread and allow doctors to treat victims faster than the disease can spread and evolve. Hopefully we can someday wipe out this disease.

Comments are closed.