The World's Leading Malaria Research Scientists Present New Findings in the Fight Against Malaria
Bethesda, Maryland Malaria research scientists
from around the globe have published new insights into the international
burden of malaria and what can be done about it. The new data are
presented in a supplement to the American Journal of Tropical Medicine
and Hygiene titled “The Intolerable Burden of Malaria II:
What’s New What’s Needed”, released on September
9, 2004.
“The global burden of malaria is staggering and intolerable”,
says National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID)
Director Anthony S. Fauci, M.D. “The articles in this important
publication help to quantify this burden and describe what is being
done and what is needed to reduce the human suffering
and economic toll caused by malaria.”
“This supplement comes at a critical time when agencies around
the world are working harder than ever to find new solutions to
the seemingly intractable problem of malaria,” said Dr. Sharon
Hrynkow, Acting Director of the Fogarty International Center (FIC),
which led the development of the supplement on behalf of its partners.
“Multilateral efforts, including the Global Fund for AIDS,
TB and malaria, as well as national efforts will benefit from the
information gathered in this supplement,” she added.
In the groundbreaking publication, available to researchers worldwide
at no cost, it is reported that artemisinin-based combination therapy
can significantly delay the development of malaria parasite resistance
and are more effective than anti-malarial agents currently in use.
New information on insecticide-impregnated bed nets designed to
protect children, pregnant women, and newborns from the disease
is also reported. “This combination therapy is just one of
several approaches in clinical development that is designed to prevent
or reduce the onset of malaria and promote earlier recovery,”
notes Dr. Kenneth Olden, director of the National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences (NIEHS). As many as 35 candidate vaccines are in
clinical development, of which 16 are designed to prevent or reduce
the onset of parasitemia, reduce febrile malaria attacks, and promote
earlier recovery. Transmission-blocking vaccines, also called “altruistic
vaccines”, prevent infectious sexual stage (sporozoite) development
in the salivary glands of Anopheles mosquitoes and block the transmission
of malaria by infected mosquitoes, thereby protecting larger communities.
Every year, malaria kills close to two million persons and is associated
with close to five billion episodes of clinical illness throughout
the world. Over 50 percent of the world’s population is exposed
to the disease an increase of close to 10 percent over the
past decade. Those living in the most economically deprived areas
receive the worst care and suffer catastrophic economic consequences
from their illness. Almost three percent of disability-adjusted
life years (DALYs) are due to malaria mortality globally, 10 percent
in Africa.
Only the second of its kind, the new supplement contains data contributed
by malaria researchers from around the world, including many in
malaria-endemic areas.
“The most successful malaria control programs over the past
100 years, in the Americas and Europe, and now in Africa and Asia,
have been linked to strong research activities. New antimalarial
drugs, insecticides, bed nets, and other methods to control malaria
have come from field research in the swamps and other mosquito breeding
areas, and the laboratories, clinics and hospitals of the United
States, Caribbean, and southern Europe,” says Fogarty’s
Dr. Joel Breman, one of the editors for the supplement. Now, a growing
number of scientists from Africa, the area suffering the greatest
toll from malaria, are more actively involved in combating this
scourge compared to a few years ago. Their contributions to understanding
the socio-cultural dimensions of the burden of malaria are vital
to the development of effective interventions and improving understanding
of how to deploy and facilitate access to those interventions.
Input for the supplement was derived from the Multilateral Initiative
on Malaria (MIM) Pan African Conference, held in Arusha, Tanzania
and hosted by the MIM, an alliance of organizations and individuals
working together to maximize the impact of scientific research on
malaria in Africa. The supplement was supported by the Fogarty International
Center, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
the National Library of Medicine and the National Institute of Environmental
Health Sciences of the National Institutes of Health and other partners.*
The new supplement, featuring 37 papers, was edited by Dr. Joel
Breman, FIC, Dr. Martin Alilio, Academy for Educational Development
(formerly of the Fogarty International Center), and Dr. Anne Mills,
London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. Featured papers
in the malaria supplement discuss the latest findings on relationships
between malaria and other morbidities, including HIV in pregnant
women; malnutrition; and neurological, cognitive, and developmental
sequelae. The authors explore new antimalaria treatment methods,
examine methods for calculating the global burden of disease and
malaria, and assess the impact of mosquito transmission on morbidity
and mortality. Approaches for determining the economic toll caused
by malaria are examined; and the role of urban malaria, epidemics
and social and economic burdens in impeding the development of cost
effective, newer malaria control methods are analyzed. Featured
papers also discuss the research agenda and other focused activities
that help to define malaria’s toll on the world’s population.
Full text of the journal supplement can be accessed by visiting
http://www.ajtmh.org/content/vol71/2_suppl/index.shtml.
Researchers interested in receiving a hard copy of the journal
supplement or the associated DVD should contact the FIC Communications
Office at ficinfo@nih.gov or
(301) 496-2075.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH), Department of Health and
Human Services, is the primary Federal agency for conducting and
supporting medical research, helping to lead the way toward important
medical discoveries to improve people's health. NIH investigates
the causes, treatments, and cures for both common and rare diseases.
Composed of 27 Institutes and Centers, each with its own broadly
defined mission, NIH provides leadership and financial support to
more than 210,000 researchers in every state and throughout the
world. The NIH Web site may be visited at http://www.nih.gov/.
The Fogarty International Center (FIC) is the international component
of the National Institutes of Health. FIC promotes and supports scientific
research internationally to reduce disparities in global health.
The Foundation for the National Institutes of Health was established
by the United States Congress to support the mission of the National
Institutes of Health (NIH): improving health through scientific
discovery. The Foundation for NIH identifies and develops opportunities
for innovative public-private partnerships involving industry, academia,
and the philanthropic community. A non-profit, 501(c) (3) corporation,
the Foundation raises private-sector funds for a broad portfolio
of unique programs that complement and enhance NIH priorities and
activities. The Foundation’s Web site address is http://www.fnih.org.
*The supplement is made available through the support of the Fogarty
International Center (FIC); Academy for Educational Development;
the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation; the Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention; the Disease Control Priorities Developing
Countries Project (DCPP); the Ellison Medical Foundation; the NIH;
the MIM; the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases,
the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and the
National Library of Medicine of the NIH; the United States Agency
for International Development; the World Bank; and the Foundation
for the National Institutes of Health through contributions from
international partners including, the Burroughs Wellcome Fund; the
Malaria Vaccine Initiative at the Program for Appropriate Technology
in Health (PATH); the Rockefeller Foundation; the World Health Organization
Roll Back Malaria Department; the Special Programme for Research
and Training in Tropical Diseases, World Health Organization (TDR/WHO);
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation; United Nations Foundation;
the Wellcome Trust; and the African Regional Office, WHO.
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