That two young siblings of a very poor family from the remote village of Shishila, Belthangady had to succumb to severe malaria in 2014 is highly shocking. There appear to be several lapses at multiple levels leading to these tragic deaths. There also appears to be a clear attempt to…
One of the greatest challenges of medicine has been the development of an effective and safe vaccine against malaria. Despite the persistent efforts for more than a century, spending hundreds of millions of dollars and lifelong sacrifice from dedicated physicians and scientists, the malaria vaccine has remained elusive. Although many…
Mangaluru is a coastal city in southern Karnataka with a population of 4,99,000 (2011 Census). The city has witnessed resurgence of malaria since 1990-91. [See Malaria in Mangaluru] The surge in malaria has been largely attributed to increased urbanisation and vigorous construction activities that brought in migrant labour from malarious…
Mosquito control is an important component of malaria control strategy, although elimination of malaria in an area does not require the elimination of all Anopheles mosquitoes. In North America and Europe for example, although the vector Anopheles mosquitoes are still present, the parasite has been eliminated. Socio-economic improvements (e.g., houses…
Scandalously scarce resource (Nature, Oct 3, 2002;419:417) for malaria control! Malaria is an acute infectious disease caused by the parasites called Plasmodia and spread by the the vector, the female anopheles mosquito. Control of this dreaded menace would therefore involve three living beings: Man (The host), Plasmodia (The agent), and…
Malaria has caused unimaginable hardship to humanity as well as loss of millions of human life, from kings to commoners, from time immemorial. Many human settlements were decimated, civilizations declined, wars lost and advance of humanity halted due to malaria. Until 1897, when the mosquito vector was identified by Ronald…
