India topped countries in the South-East Asia region for the most number of malaria cases and deaths in 2022, according to this report published by the World Health Organization (WHO). Each year, WHO’s World malaria report provides a comprehensive and up-to-date assessment of trends in malaria control and elimination across …
considering the amount of money that has gone into it, failure to control malaria is one of the more outstanding setbacks on the health front in independent India. According to an estimate, malaria cost the country between us $0.5 and 1 billion (Rs 1787.5 and 3575 crore) in 1991. In …
Even as humankind exults in having unlocked the secrets of the insect kingdom, the war between humans and insects is far from over. Several conflicts between humans and insects have been won by humans, but they have been hollow victories at best. In its desire to beat the pests, humanity …
west bengal is sitting on a malaria time bomb. According to the deputy chief medical officer of health of Purulia district in West Bengal, Asit Biswas, over 17,000 people in Purulia are carrying the dreaded cerebral malarial parasite in their blood. Speaking at a recent seminar on the eradication of …
A new method of treating or preventing malaria has come to light with the discovery of the protein that makes the disease lethal. The parasite Plasmodium falciparum , that causes cerebral malaria, annually infects about 300 million people, of which two to three million die. The parasite invades red blood …
In June, for the first time, malaria control was included in the ;agenda of the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) Summit in Zimbabwe. ReportedN, nine out of 10 cases occur in sub- Saharan Africa. Campaigners called upon international organisations to cooperate in a 30-year old programme for developing measures to …
WITH the ministry of health and family welfare ready to launch a major offensive against malaria from June 1, the country is in for another dose of one of the most toxic chemicals known to humans: dichlorodiphenyl trichloroethane (DDT). Health minister Saleem Sherwani recently announced the setting up of a …
On the status of vector borne diseases in India - whether these have been on the rise over the years: Using large ancounts of DDT has not helped in lowering the number of malaria cases caused by ILasmodium falciparum The number of malaria cases are about two million and have …
a group of British biochemists have discovered a cavity in the molecular structure of an enzyme, essential to the malarial parasite, which could act as a docking point for tailor-made drugs designed to inactivate the enzyme and disable the parasite. The most deadly parasitic protozoan Plasmodum falciparum , which kills …
LAST monsoon, floods had usurped their crops. And then followed malaria, taking a massive unforseen toll. The malady is feared to have claimed over 10,000 lives in the Mewat region in the Haryana-Rajasthan border, spanning over 800 villages in the Gurgaon district of Haryana, and almost an equal number of …
The Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh are in the serious grip of an epidemic suspected to be cerebral malaria. In the past nine months, unofficial figures state that more than 300 people have died due to the disease. Cerebral malaria is spread by a poisoned mosquito known as salciserum. The …
malaria research has thrown up yet another factor which determines why the disease varies in its manifestations in different people, from children to adults. Nitric oxide, a toxic gas and an air polluter, is also found in the human body. It can attack fungi, parasites and bacteria, either by killing …
the air is oppressively still. Sultanpur is today a virtual ghost town. Thirteen km off Hisar, this small town has a population of about 5,000. The dung-spattered bylanes are mostly empty. Most of the residents have been bed-ridden since mid-July, when a mysterious fever struck Sultanpur and adjoining villages in …
Thousands of Africans fall prey to malaria every year. But a recent study shows that a Chinese herbal medicine could do wonders for treating cerebral malaria. The medicine called artemether can cure the patient more quickly and with fewer side effects. Earlier, malaria used to be treated with quinine which …
malaria seems to be India's growing nemesis. In Rajasthan, 3,000 documented deaths were attributed to malaria last year. However, Vikas Rampal of the Delhi-based Lok Nayak Jayaprakash Narain Hospital cynically remarked, "Three thousand means 30,000! There is an official apathy to admit that there is a rise in the incidence …
malaria is back again, and this time with a trans-generational implication. According to a recent report, first pregnancies undo the relative resistance against Plasmodium falciparum , the most serious form of malarial parasite. The resistance seems to improve with subsequent pregnancies. The distinct clinical entity is known as maternal malaria. …
Malaria varies with the type of parasite or vector involved, the level of resistance and eco-epiderniological considerations: TRibAL MALARIA Generally prevalant in the tribal areas of deep forests, forest-fringes (subtype 1) and surrounding ecologically disturbed areas (subtype 11), it poses a management problem due to poor health infrastructure and inadequate …
Scientists have recently discovered that certain disorders do not seem to go well with malaria. One such finding shows that sickle cell anaemia patients are resistant to cerebral malaria. Sickle cell anaemia is caused by a defective haemoglobin gene, designated Hbs, which deforms red blood cells (RBC) into sickle-shaped cells. …
ALMOST 100 years after the discovery of the mosquito-bornemalarial parasite by Sir Ronald Ross in 1897scientists andpublic health experts are still grappling with ways to tackle thekiller disease. According to World Health Organization (WHO)estimatesmalaria afflicts about 500 million people annuallythe world over; 90 per cent of the cases occur in …
