London (Reuters) – in Africa are generating
great strides in the fight against the most common form of
malaria, but other types of parasitic disease to be
transmitted by mosquitoes is stomping in South Asia and
in some parts of Latin America reported scientists.
In a new global malaria parasite map
Plasmodium vivax, researchers from Oxford University in great
Britain found that the disease – which tends to be recurring and
can be deadly – is found in a substantial part of the
world.
“This map helps us to understand just how difficult will
“”
to eradicate malaria”, said Peter Gething who led
the Malaria Atlas project (MAP for its acronym in English).
“Unfortunately, the tools to combat such
“”
of malaria go from ineffective to non-existent”, added.
The vivax is not as lethal as the Plasmodium parasite
falciparum, which is the most common in Africa and which causes the
most of the approximately 800,000 deaths a year by
malaria, although it is much more common and puts at risk around
2,850 million of people around the world.
It also has a unique stay hidden ability
for months or years in the liver, which complicates their detection
and cure.
Among the areas most affected by vivax malaria highlights
by the team of the MAP are substantial parts of
India, including the major urban areas such as of
Mumbai, where the disease was little common.
New Guinea also has a high rate of
infection and transmission, like much of Indonesia
and Myanmar, noted experts, who presented the study the
Monday at a Conference of the American Society of
Tropical Medicine and hygiene (ASTMH).
In America, the area of greatest concern is a region
wide but little populated north of the Amazon, which belongs
to Brazil, although it also includes Peru, Colombia and
Venezuela.
In central America, almost all Nicaragua and part of Honduras
and Guatemala are strong presence of the malaria zones vivax.
In Africa, Gething said that if well this
parasite is present, the infection rates appear to be “very
“”
very low” in most places, although the study
drew modest but stable the vivax transmission levels
in some regions of the Horn of Africa and in Madagascar.
VIVAX also can kill
Kevin Baird, who works at the research unit
clinic Eijkman-Oxford Indonesia, expressed that it is increasingly
clear that the vivax is more serious than I thought.
Some years ago, said Baird, the overall look was that
gave patients with fever, pain and cold, but that
rarely was lethal. Now this is beginning to change.
“We are beginning to suspect (…)” the vivax is
killing people at much higher rates than any other
(parasite) “, noted Baird in a communiqué.
“
“Still have little data on the subject, but the
“”
information that we have worries me”, added.
There are few effective malaria treatments vivax.
Drugs for malaria, such as combined therapies
with artemisinin (ACT), which are used in cases of falciparum malaria
can help treat acute infections with vivax malaria in the
blood stream, but only a medicine – primaquine –
you can delete the vivax parasites in the liver and provide a cure
to long term.
The medicine should be taken for 14 days to make it work
properly, thereby limiting the success of the therapy areas
where access to medication and medical care are
deficient.
The first successful vaccine against malaria, called RTS, S and
developed by the British laboratory GlaxoSmithKline, only
points to malaria falciparum malaria.
Also, preventive measures such as mosquito nets and
household insecticides, which helped reduce deaths by
malaria in Africa, seem to have little impact on the vivax,
according to experts, in part because the mosquitoes that transmit
the vivax tend to chop outdoors rather than doors inside.
