New Malaria Parasites

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QUESTION

I heard researchers have found a new malaria parasite—what is the name?

ANSWER

New malaria parasites are found quite regularly—the parasite that causes malaria, Plasmodium, actually infects birds, reptiles, rodents and non-human primates like monkeys and apes as well as humans. As such, non-human forms of malaria are discovered relatively frequently in other species. For example, a few years ago, some researchers looked at malaria in apes in Central Africa, and found a new species in gorillas, which is so new it has not even been fully described to science yet, and so remains unnamed! It is thought to be very closely related to Plasmodium falciparum, which is the most dangerous type of malaria in humans. Also recently, two new species were observed in chimpanzees, also in Central Africa, and names P. billcollinsi and P. billbrayi.

Even in humans, new infections are sometimes observed. One which has gained a lot of recent attention is not a new species, but what seems to be increasing numbers of cases of a monkey type of malaria (called P. knowlesi) in humans. It is unclear whether this is due to changes within the parasite, or changes to the landscape which might be creating more favorable conditions for the transmission of this malaria to humans. It is even possible that this malaria has always infected humans, and so this is not a new development, but due to diagnostic issues, it was mistaken for other, human malaria species, such as P. vivax and/or P. malariae.

Organizations Against Malaria

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QUESTION

What is a good organization that helps stop malaria?

ANSWER

There are many organizations that work very hard to control malaria. The most well known are those that design policies and implement projects to control malaria on the ground, in places where the disease is most deadly. These include multilateral international organizations such as UNICEF and the World Health Organization (as well as its regional counterparts, such as the Pan-American Health Organization, PAHO), country-led aid organizations such as DIfD in the UK and USAID in the US (the President’s Malaria Initiative, PMI, is largely implemented via USAID) as well as non-governmental organizations which seek to improve the lives of people in developing countries, such as Save the Children, Malaria No More and many other such groups.

Some of these groups have also joined forces to create multi-faceted organizations and programmes dedicated to controlling malaria, such as the Roll Back Malaria consortium and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, which provides millions of dollars of funding to projects throughout the world.

Secondly, there is also an aspect to malaria control which is not so easily seen on the ground, and that is the vast numbers of researchers who are dedicated to finding new drugs to treat malaria, new methods for control and new insecticides to prevent transmission from mosquitoes, among many other examples. These researchers are found in universities and research institutes all over the world, including many in sub-Saharan Africa, India and other places where the burden of malaria is very high.

On our website, you can find some personal accounts of scientists, working for the global pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca, who are doing drug discovery research in Bangalore, India. There are also blog posts from scientists at Princeton looking at transmission of malaria between monkeys and humans in south-east Asia, and information about cutting edge research at the Global Health Group at the University of California, San Francisco, whose members conduct work on a variety of aspects of malaria biology and control initiatives.

Insecticide Treated Bednets (ITNs) Research

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QUESTION

I want to know about the treated bed net, because I want research about the ITNs. So please help me find some reasearch papers.

ANSWER

There are a wealth of scientific studies on ITNs. I will list a few here, which in turn will lead you to many others through their cited references. I am purposefully mostly mentioning papers published in open access journals, since many others restrict unsubscribed readers to only the abstract and not the full paper.