Reports issue dire warning on malaria
Source: Agencies |
August 5, 2010, Thursday
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Print Edition
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NEARLY three billion people, or two-fifths of the world's population, were at risk of contracting malaria in 2009 and closer study of the mosquito's life cycle is needed to combat the disease, researchers said in two reports.
In the first study, scientists mapped out the geographical spread of the Plasmodium vivax - the most common parasite that causes malaria - using reported cases of malaria and details on temperature and aridity.
"We estimate that the global population at risk of P. vivax malaria in 2009 was 2.85 billion people. Regionally, the great majority of this population (91 percent) resides in central and southeast Asian countries," wrote Simon Hay, a zoologist at the University of Oxford who co-authored the study.
"P. vivax remains the most widely distributed human malaria parasite even after a century of development and control," he added.
The malaria atlas was published yesterday in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
In 2008, there were 247 million cases of malaria worldwide and nearly one million deaths, mostly among children.
In the second paper, another team of researchers said vector control measures such as insecticide-treated nets and sprays have not been able to break the transmission cycle of the Plasmodium falciparum, another parasite that causes malaria in the most endemic parts of Africa and the Pacific.
It is regarded as a more dangerous cause of malaria as it has the highest rates of complications and death.
"Global commitment to malaria eradication necessitates a corresponding long-term commitment to vector ecology," wrote Gerry Killeen from the Ifakara Health Institute in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and colleagues in the journal PLoS Medicine.
In the first study, scientists mapped out the geographical spread of the Plasmodium vivax - the most common parasite that causes malaria - using reported cases of malaria and details on temperature and aridity.
"We estimate that the global population at risk of P. vivax malaria in 2009 was 2.85 billion people. Regionally, the great majority of this population (91 percent) resides in central and southeast Asian countries," wrote Simon Hay, a zoologist at the University of Oxford who co-authored the study.
"P. vivax remains the most widely distributed human malaria parasite even after a century of development and control," he added.
The malaria atlas was published yesterday in the journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.
In 2008, there were 247 million cases of malaria worldwide and nearly one million deaths, mostly among children.
In the second paper, another team of researchers said vector control measures such as insecticide-treated nets and sprays have not been able to break the transmission cycle of the Plasmodium falciparum, another parasite that causes malaria in the most endemic parts of Africa and the Pacific.
It is regarded as a more dangerous cause of malaria as it has the highest rates of complications and death.
"Global commitment to malaria eradication necessitates a corresponding long-term commitment to vector ecology," wrote Gerry Killeen from the Ifakara Health Institute in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and colleagues in the journal PLoS Medicine.
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