Wednesday, November 18, 2009

The Role of Biomedical Research in Malaria Eradication

Bill and Melinda Gates are trying increase efforts in hopes of eliminating the parasite that causes malaria. Malaria is a disease caused by a parasitic protozoa (Plasmodium) that continues to kill 1 million individuals per year worldwide. Many attempts have been made to completely eradicate malaria before, however the parasite has managed to persist. Anthony Fauci, the director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases talked about what needed to be done in order for to succeed in this effort.

What has been learned from the past is that as Plasmodium is eliminated due to human intervention, the parasite or the mosquito that delivers it into our bloodstream are bound to change in order to circumvent the roadblocks that we have set. Currently scientists are working on a way to intefere with the parasite by preventing the mosquito from acting as its vector (method of delivery). However, in order to win the battle against Plasmodium, we have to be able to predict what changes can occur and work to fight against those as well. We need the modifications to the mosquito to be able to spread to nearly the entire mosquito population and continue through generations. In addition to this, we need to develop ways of diagnosing infection before symptoms arise as well as vaccines that can interfere with the progression of infection at its different stages. More information needs to be learned about the parasite itself and its life cycle for their efforts to be successful.

http://www3.niaid.nih.gov/news/newsreleases/2009/MalariaEradication.htm

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