Malaria Cycle

World Malaria Day is coming up later this month. The WHO is pushing hard to make sure that the gains in malaria control and reductions in malaria-related mortality seen over recent years are maintained in the current economic crisis.

The WHO says that malaria deaths in Africa have been cut by one third within the last decade. Outside of Africa, 35 out of 53 affected countries have reduced cases by 50% in the same time period. There have also been overall reductions in child mortality rates of around 20%.

Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership – World Malaria Day 2012 – Sustain Gains, Save Lives: Invest in Malaria

The theme for World Malaria Day 2012 - “Sustain Gains, Save Lives: Invest in Malaria” - marks a decisive juncture in the history of malaria control. Whether the malaria map will keep shrinking, as it has in the past decade, or be reclaimed by the malaria parasites, depends, to a great extent, on the resources that will be invested in control efforts over the next years.

Related articles

• Drug-Resistant Malaria Threatens Effort to Control Disease (voanews.com)
• Drug-resistant malaria is spreading and it could be a public health disaster (theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com)
• Travellers ‘need malaria warnings’ (confused.com)
• Super malaria strain on the rise! (rightways.wordpress.com)

Malaria is an ever-present risk in much of the tropics, remaining one of the major public health challenges for this century. New research published in the BJ now shows that malaria mortality rates in elderly travelers are much higher than in their younger counterparts.

Read more: Elderly are almost 10 times more likely to die of malaria than younger tourists | BMJ.

I read an interesting article today on a new biological control agent for mosquito-borne diseases like malaria and dengue.

It revolves around infecting mosquito eggs with the organism Wolbachia.

Wolbachia inside insect cell.

It has been known for a long time that mossies infected with this agent don’t live as long, or transmit disease as often. The new research suggests that major immune up-regulation is the reason for both these observations.

Wolbachia is also interesting because it is an inherited infection – bacteria are present in eggs and are passed on to the female insect’s offspring.

Malaria Control by Bacteria?