Breakthrough against malaria

[gogannaka]

Australian scientists yesterday identified a potential treatment to combat malaria, a global scourge, which kills about 300,000 Nigerians, mostly children below five years, annually.
According to a report on the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) website, researchers in Melbourne believe their discovery could be a major breakthrough in the fight against the disease; where the malaria parasite produces a glue-like substance which makes the cells it infects sticky, so they cannot be flushed through the body.
The researchers, according to the report, have shown how removing a protein responsible for the glue can destroy its stickiness, and undermine the parasite's defence.
The malaria parasite, named Plasmodium falciparum, effectively hijacks the red blood cells it invades, changing their shape and physical properties dramatically.
Among the changes it triggers is the production of the glue-like substance, which enables the infected cells to stick to the walls of the blood vessels. This stops them being passed through the spleen, where the parasites would usually be destroyed by the immune system.
The Australian team developed mutant strains of P. falciparum, each lacking one of 83 genes known or predicted to play a role in the red cell remodeling process. Systematically testing each one, they were able to show that eight proteins were involved in the production of the key glue-like substance.
Removing just one of these proteins stopped the infected cells from attaching themselves to the walls of blood vessels, the report revealed.
Professor Alan Cowman, a member of the research team at the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research, said targeting the protein with drugs, or possibly a vaccine, could be key to fighting malaria.
“If we block the stickiness, we essentially block the virulence or the capacity of the parasite to cause disease,” he said.
Malaria is preventable and curable, but can be fatal if not treated promptly. The disease kills more than a million people each year. Many of the victims are young children in sub-Saharan Africa.
Available statistics indicate that one out of every five Nigerian children will die before their fifth birthday, with malaria alone being responsible for one quarter of these deaths.
Malaria is said to be responsible for an estimated 30 per cent of deaths among children, 11 per cent among pregnant women and 80 per cent of diseases in reported cases in health facilities.
It is certainly the leading cause of morbidity and mortality in the country.
Records also show that 50 per cent of Nigeria’s population suffers from, at least, one episode of malaria attack each year. The disease accounts for over 45 per cent of all outpatient visits.
The Federal Government spends millions annually on awareness campaigns and provides malaria control measures, which involves programmes such as the Roll Back Malaria initiative, where special insecticide-treated bed-nets are produced and distributed to the people, especially nursing mothers.
Various countries and international organisations such as Japan and the World Health Organisation (WHO) are also collaborating with the country in the fight against her ‘biggest’ killer.
In the country, malaria is directly or remotely responsible for the loss of millions of productive hours, resulting in colossal reduction in individual and collective productivity.
The Kano State Commissioner for Health, Malama Aisha Ishiaku, recently stated that the malaria scourge accounts for an annual economic burden of about N132 billion in Nigeria.
Reports also revealed that in Africa, malaria accounts for 10 per cent of the continent’s disease burden as well as the $12 billion yearly lost in productivity.
Globally, about 40 per cent of world population (2.4 billion) is known to be at risk. An estimated 300-500 million cases of malaria occur globally every year.

[Dan-Borno]

abokina, kabari kurum, while people are dying of malaria
our government are spending enormous amount of money
on hiv/aids.  imagine, instead of providing the medicines
at our hospitals at an affordable rates, government are
engaged in contracting out "treated mosquitoe" that are
mostly fake.  the last time i bought one @ N850.00 didnt
work, despite being treated, i found about 3 mosquitoes
inside in the morning.  because our government are interested
in giving out the contract - so be it.

another issue which confuses me the most on this mosquitoe
issue is that even if you spray them this mobil/sheltox, it
doesnt kill them, ka basu awanni kawai, u hear them busy
parading for food.

our government should find a lasting solution, especially as
it regards to its breeding, while the communities should also
maintained a clean and healthy environment to supplement
the effort of the government.

[gogannaka]

The mosquitoes nowadays are very brilliant.
They know the doors that poen and those that don't.
Whenever i'm opening the door to my room i notice they quickly follow me inside the room.
So i started checking the doors for possible intruders whenever i'll enter at night.

And before before when i was in primary school we were told that the mosquitoes that make that whining noise do not bite,that they only make the noise to attract their partners.Now they bite.Thanks to evolution.

A microbiologist frien did his topic to find the most effective insecticide.
The ones he used include mobil,rambo,raid,total and baygon.
He found that Baygon was the most effective.Some didn't even achieve 15% effectiveness.

I believe the most effective way of combating malaria is by taking care of their breeding places.
Gutters,sewages,ponds should all be treated with anti-mosquitoe chemicals that would kill the lavae and eggs.
Another way is to make mosquitoes extinct by introducing genetic partners that are infertile so that when they mate with the fertile ones they don't reproduce.

[gogannaka]

Another Breakthrough.
These australians are good.

SCIENTISTS may have inched closer to a final victory over diseases like leukaemia, asthma and rheumatoid arthritis. Australian scientists said yesterday that they had mapped a blood cell structure which could hold the key to better drug treatment for such diseases.

The researcher achieved a clear image of a protein re-captor in which blood cells which when malfunctioning, can cause leukaemia.

"It's called a receptor because it interacts with a hormone... in this case a hormone called GM-CSF," said Professor Michael Parker.

Parker, from St Vincent's Institute in Melbourne, said in certain types of diseases like leukaemia, something goes wrong with the receptor.

"And when that happens, it can cause uncontrolled growth and that's what cancer is about," he told AFP.

He said because the new research shows precisely what the receptor looks like and also how it works, scientists can begin to design new drugs to target the deadly abnormal blood cell."

"At the moment, many leukaemias are treated with chemotherapy that destroys the diseased blood cells and bone marrow as well as normal cells,".

"We hope that this discovery will lead to targeted therapies, more specific to the malfunctioning cells seen in diseases such as leukaemia, he said."

Parker said this particular protein receptor had been involved in some of the most aggressive and deadly forms of leukaemia.

"I think that's a real positive aspect of this work, it could target those (diseases) that are just untreatable at the moment or are very difficult to treat," he said.

The research, published in the U.S.-based science journal Cell, was a collaboration between researchers at St Vincent's Institute and the Hanson Institute in Adelaide.

Both institutes have signed an agreement with biopharmaceutical company CSL Limited to work to develop therapeutic antibodies.