• Disrupting Power Since 2015
  • Donate
  • Login
Thursday, May 15, 2025
  • Login
  • Register
Canary
MEDIA THAT DISRUPTS
  • News
    • UK
    • Global
    • Analysis
    • Trending
  • Editorial
  • Features
    • Features
    • Environment
    • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Money
    • Science
    • Business
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Sport & Gaming
  • Media
    • Video
    • Cartoons
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
MANAGE SUBSCRIPTION
SUPPORT
  • News
    • UK
    • Global
    • Analysis
    • Trending
  • Editorial
  • Features
    • Features
    • Environment
    • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Money
    • Science
    • Business
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Sport & Gaming
  • Media
    • Video
    • Cartoons
  • Opinion
No Result
View All Result
Canary
No Result
View All Result

One of the world’s deadliest diseases just got deadlier

Nancy Mendoza by Nancy Mendoza
19 June 2022
in Science
Reading Time: 2 mins read
168 4
A A
0
Home Other News & Features Science
319
SHARES
2.5k
VIEWS
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

Malaria is one of the world’s deadliest diseases. If that wasn’t bad enough, a highly drug resistant strain is threatening to invade Africa, where it could claim hundreds of millions of lives.

Malaria is caused by a microscopic parasite called Plasmodium falciparum that is carried by several species of biting mosquitoes.

In South East Asia, patients have been diagnosed with malaria that is resistant to the most effective treatment, Artemisinin. This resistant strain was first found in Cambodia in 2008 and has spread across the region, but now it’s threatening to escape to new areas of the world.

Researchers assumed that Plasmodium would need to evolve over a long period of time if it was to cross the species barrier between South East Asian mosquitoes and those that transmit malaria elsewhere in the world – this has happened several times in the past. But now it’s been found that the resistant Plasmodium strain can infect African mosquitoes, too.

The African mosquito Anopheles coluzzii has been infected with Artemisinin in the laboratory of Dr Rick Fairhurst, from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease (NIAID) in the US.

By examining the genes of the resistant parasites, Dr Fairhurst’s team has also noticed a common genetic background, which they think is enabling resistant strains to infect a wide range of mosquito species by evading their immune systems.

Dr Fairhurst told the BBC:

“This is just one more piece to the puzzle that looks like a worldwide catastrophe.

“We have parasites that are not only resistant to Artemisinin… they have no barrier to infecting multiple different mosquitoes and then transmitting the infections all the way to another human.”

If Artemisinin resistant malaria makes it into Africa, which seems likely at this point, the scale of the problem immediately becomes far greater. In South East Asia and the Western Pacific Region (including Cambodia, where the drug resistant strain was first identified) there are around 390 million people at high risk of malaria, and in Africa there are around 640 million at high risk, according to the World Health Organisation 2014 World Malaria Report.

There are some big players in the fight to eliminate malaria, including the World Health Organisation, The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the Wellcome Trust. But nobody has yet managed to halt the progress of malaria as it continues to ravage communities in some of the poorest areas of the world.

It seems to be a matter of “if” rather than “when” Artemisinin resistant malaria reaches Africa and there is unlikely to be a single solution to the problem. It will take a combination of bed nets, insecticides, biological control of mosquitoes, release of sterile GM mosquitoes, new drugs, and better treatments and health infrastructure to win the fight against malaria.

Share128Tweet80
Previous Post

Mindfulness could revolutionise the NHS, if we use it like this

Next Post

Iain Duncan-Smith blows £8.5m of public money on this monstrosity

Next Post
Workie, created in association with IDS

Iain Duncan-Smith blows £8.5m of public money on this monstrosity

Tory MP says tax credit cuts ‘betray’ Tory values, but doesn’t vote against them

Tory MP says tax credit cuts ‘betray’ Tory values, but doesn’t vote against them

Regulator gets 8,000 letters about Monsanto product

Regulator gets 8,000 letters about Monsanto product

Vote changes could mean Tories forever

Vote changes could mean Tories forever

Canadians kick out Conservatives, and Britain could too

Canadians kick out Conservatives, and Britain could too

The British Museum just held an event with the Israeli embassy - and the Met police responded by repressing Palestine protesters
News

British Museum holds event with the Israeli embassy – so Met Police respond by repressing Palestine protesters

by The Canary
14 May 2025
EXPOSED: the public is paying for Keir Starmer's in-laws to live virtually rent-free in London
Analysis

EXPOSED: the public is paying for Keir Starmer’s in-laws to live virtually rent-free in London

by Ed Sykes
14 May 2025
People are coming together on 7 June to oppose Labour's DWP benefit cuts
News

People are coming together on 7 June to oppose Labour’s DWP benefit cuts

by The Canary
14 May 2025
Keir Starmer's 'Island of Strangers' speech: channeling the racist rhetoric of Enoch Powell
Opinion

Is Keir Starmer capable of killing?

by Jamie Driscoll
14 May 2025
As an ACTUAL GENOCIDE continues, its apologists come for Gary Lineker over an emoji
Opinion

As an ACTUAL GENOCIDE continues, its apologists come for Gary Lineker over an emoji

by Ed Sykes
14 May 2025
  • Contact
  • About & FAQ
  • Get our Daily News Email
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

The Canary
PO Box 71199
LONDON
SE20 9EX

Canary Media Ltd – registered in England. Company registration number 09788095.

For guest posting, contact [email protected]

For other enquiries, contact: [email protected]

The Canary is owned and run by independent journalists and volunteers, NOT offshore billionaires.

You can write for us, or support us by making a regular or one-off donation.

© Canary Media Ltd 2024, all rights reserved | Website by Monster | Hosted by Krystal | Privacy Settings

Welcome Back!

Login to your account below

Forgotten Password? Sign Up

Create New Account!

Fill the forms below to register

All fields are required. Log In

Retrieve your password

Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

Log In
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • UK
    • Global
    • Analysis
    • Trending
  • Editorial
  • Features
    • Features
    • Environment
    • Lifestyle
    • Health
    • Money
    • Science
    • Business
    • Tech
    • Travel
    • Sport & Gaming
  • Media
    • Video
    • Cartoons
  • Opinion

© 2023 Canary - Worker's co-op.

Before you go, have you seen...?

The British Museum just held an event with the Israeli embassy - and the Met police responded by repressing Palestine protesters
News
The Canary

British Museum holds event with the Israeli embassy – so Met Police respond by repressing Palestine protesters

EXPOSED: the public is paying for Keir Starmer's in-laws to live virtually rent-free in London
Analysis
Ed Sykes

EXPOSED: the public is paying for Keir Starmer’s in-laws to live virtually rent-free in London

People are coming together on 7 June to oppose Labour's DWP benefit cuts
News
The Canary

People are coming together on 7 June to oppose Labour’s DWP benefit cuts

Keir Starmer's 'Island of Strangers' speech: channeling the racist rhetoric of Enoch Powell
Opinion
Jamie Driscoll

Is Keir Starmer capable of killing?

ADVERTISEMENT
Business
Nathan Spears

When digital isn’t enough: why paper still matters in modern business

Tech
Nathan Spears

How Digital Addictions Are Formed in the Shadow of Large Platforms

Lifestyle
Nathan Spears

Recovery in the Sun: How the Canary Islands are Becoming a Wellness Tourism Hub