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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
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 …
THE simple shield of a net soaked in insecticide could save thousands of children from becoming targets of malarial carriers, reveals a study backed by the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations Development Programme and the World Bank. Extensiv6 studies in Kenya, Ghana and Gambia where bednets impregnated with …
The Thai-Burmese border is not only home to ethnic rebels, wandering refugees and gem smugglers but also to deadly drug-resistant malarial parasites. According to experts, the region is the epicentre of drug-resistant malaria. Doctors in a Thai refugee camp in Mae La, are racing against time to develop better drugs …
THE wonder herb from the Little Andamans - home to the Onge fribals found to be a sure-fire antidote to the deadly malarial parasite Plasmodium falciparum, remains in zthe eye of the storm (Down To, Earth" Vol 4i No 16) :nd the imbroglio continues even as state governments in various …
A MAN in Connecticut died recently of a newly identified tick-borne disease called human granulocytic erlichiosis,, caused by a hitherto unknown bacte rium. A student in New York contracted a serious case of hanta infection, caused by a rare virus carried by r9dents. There was a fresh outbreak ofthe deadly …
MALARIA, the dreaded killer disease, is staging a comeback with a vengeance. Thought to have been controlled to a large extent if not eradicated altogether, its recurring presence today, has put a formidable question mark on the methods used to eliminate it. The spotlight has returned to the well-known but …
