MALARIA D’APES & MONKEYS

MALARIA D’APES & MONKEYS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

We have a new alarming development concerning malaria spread. Gorillas and monkeys might just happen to be the dreaded carriers of the disease, a news that could cause chagrin on the legendary Tarzan.

This analyst has no fondness for Tarzan philosophy, but is more focused on highlighting risks to communities caused by a diversity of factors such as diseases. Being a development worker for long, I contracted malaria while doing field work and almost died of the falciparum disease in 1982.

We have no evidence yet of malaria being transmitted to humans by monkeys even though we do have species of monkeys among our diverse fauna. But Africa has shown less resiliency to that possibility, as shown in the report below.

[Philippines, 18 July 2011]

Source: http://www.scidev.net/en/news/primate-malaria-in-africa-may-be-jumping-species.html

Primate malaria in Africa may be jumping species

Rachel Mundy

7 July 2011

A malaria parasite from gorillas has been found in an African monkey, suggesting it has jumped species and may be able to transfer to humans.

The finding has led some malaria experts to suggest that if transfer between monkeys and apes has occurred then monkey-to-human malaria transmission may already be happening. They have called for more research to quantify the risks.

"The evidence is sufficient to warrant further investigation into the possibility that these parasites may also jump to humans," said Beatrice Hahn, a professor of medicine at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, United States. "We need to screen humans who live in flying range of mosquitoes that also bite primates, to establish whether they are susceptible to the primate parasites."

Wild forest-living gorilla populations are known to harbour a parasite strain that is closely related to the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum. And macaque monkeys in South-East Asia carry another malaria parasite, Plasmodium knowlesi — a potential threat to humans.

But this is the first time that a P. falciparum strain similar to the one that causes human malaria has been found in an African monkey — the spot-nosed guenon from Gabon (Cercopithecus nictitans).

The fact that "the genetic differences from the human strain are so slight" raises the possibility that monkey and ape malaria may be transmitted to humans, said François Renaud, a researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research, in Montpelier, and co-author of the study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (5 July).

As humans come into closer contact with apes and monkeys as a result of deforestation, commercial hunting and population growth, the opportunity for the parasites to be transmitted to humans will increase.

"One single successful cross-species transmission event has the potential to result in a major human pandemic," Hahn, who was not involved in the study, told SciDev.Net. 


But David Conway, professor of biology at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, United Kingdom, said the reservoir of malaria in African monkeys must be very small, given the low prevalence found in this study.

"Hopefully, monkey malaria will start to be recognised as an important area of research, but when examining the public health significance for humans, it is important to put the risk into context. Normal human malaria has a much higher prevalence, except in parts of South-East Asia where this has been reduced and the importance of malaria from monkeys has become more noticeable," Conway said.

Looking for human infections with monkey malaria is "like looking for a needle in a haystack", he said, adding that "there is every chance that human infections are occurring occasionally in the forest".

"In this particular case, the vector of malaria is the key determinant in determining any public-health risk," Conway said. "Identifying which species of mosquitoes transmits each parasite strain is a neglected area of research that needs additional funding."

Link to abstract in PNAS

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17 NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES AS GLOBAL KILLERS

17 NEGLECTED TROPICAL DISEASES AS GLOBAL KILLERS

Erle Frayne D. Argonza

World population today is nearing the 7 billion mark. 1/6 of our globe’s population, or roughly 1.4 Billion, is afflicted by a relatively short list of ailments known as ‘neglected tropical diseases’.

Let’s get this straight: such ailments afflict the ‘3^rd world’ and emerging markets of today. A cursory review of what causes such ailments would reveal the most likely causes.

Below is an update report about the ailments.

[Philippines, 03 July 2011]

ource: http://www.devex.com/en/articles/75149

What Afflicts One-Sixth of the World's Population?

By Eliza Villarino on 22 June 2011

Dengue, leprosy, rabies - these diseases rarely make international headlines. But they, together with 17 other so-called neglected tropical diseases, are nearly four more times widespread than HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria combined.

Neglected tropical diseases are said to afflict almost a billion people around the globe - or an astounding one-sixth of the world’s population. That’s exactly 364 percent of the combined number of HIV/AIDS, TB and malaria cases, which were estimated at 274 million people in 2009. Yet, less than 1 percent of newly registered drugs are meant to address these tropical diseases.

Why are they being neglected?

“They are not highly visible,” the World Health Organization has said. “They do not cause explosive outbreaks that attract public and media attention. They do not travel internationally. They cause great and permanent misery, but do not kill large numbers of people or affect wealthy nations.”

Neglected tropical diseases largely prey on people who reside in remote rural areas and sprawling shantytowns, which typically lack safe drinking water and have poor sanitation, substandard housing and weak health care services.

Although many health experts have pointed out the need to address these tropical diseases - and cost-effective ways of doing so in conjunction with anti-malaria initiatives, for instance - donors have been slow to focus on this issue. But funding is available, with two of the world’s largest global health grant-making foundations – the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust – as the campaign’s biggest patrons.