Malaria deaths could vanish in ten years, claims report

Global malaria deaths could be reduced to near-zero, and cases of infection cut by 75 per cent, within the next decade, a report claims.
'A Decade of Partnerships and Results', published by the Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership last week (12 September), says these goals can be met if the progress made fighting the disease over the last ten years is sustained.
The target has been adopted by the RBM's partners — more than 500 of them — including malaria endemic countries, the private sector, non-governmental organisations and academic institutions.
A ten-fold increase in funding to fight malaria over the last ten years has resulted in halving malaria cases and deaths in 43 countries. Eleven of these are in Sub-Saharan Africa, where an estimated 1.1 million infant malaria-related deaths have been avoided.
"We are light years ahead from where we were ten years ago," said Awa Marie Coll-Seck, executive director of the RBM Partnership. The report attributes this success to global collaboration — with African nations playing a major part — and availability of new tools to fight the disease.
It highlights artemisinin combination therapies (ACTs); better diagnostic techniques; and an increased use of insecticides for nets and indoor spraying. The prevalence of insecticide-treated nets, which are often given out for free, has jumped from around only two per cent of households to up to 80 per cent in some regions.
But the report comes amidst growing concern that the malarial parasite is growing resistant to artemisinin, and mosquitoes to insecticides.
A recent study linked a rise in cases of the disease in one locality to the decreased efficacy of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, while another found resistance to ACTs in South-East Asia. Meanwhile, the WHO has become so concerned about resistance to artemisinin, the cornerstone therapy, that it has issued a blueprint for urgent action to fight it.
Pierre Druilhe, from the Malaria Vaccine Development Laboratory, at the Pasteur Institute, France, said the report's claims may be unrealistic.
"Claiming that elimination will occur in ten years makes no sense with resistance on the rise," he told SciDev.Net.
"Altogether RBM is doing a good job, but making claims like this is dangerous in the long term."
The report acknowledges the spread of resistance, and says that the search for new drugs and insecticides is vital if the goals are to be met in time.
"It is a fight against time, but with enough resources I am confident that we will stay one step ahead, and the claims of the report are a real possibility," said Thomas Eisele, an associate professor at Tulane University's School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, United States, and a contributor to the report.
Resistance to artemisinin has so far been contained within a small region in Cambodia and Thailand, and rigorous measures are in place to prevent it spreading, he said.
And insecticide resistance, although more worrying, is still very localised, he said.
The report was supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which has also been responsible for funding the Malaria Eradication Research Agenda (malERA)

indian scientists with date of births

 Scientists

Chandrasekhar Venkata Raman Date of Birth : Nov 7, 1888 Date of Death : 1970 Place of Birth : Tamil Nadu

Dr. H. J. Bhabha Date of Birth : Oct 30, 1909 Date of Death : 1966 Place of Birth : Mumbai

Dr. Hargobind Khorana Date of Birth : Jan 9, 1922 Date of Death : - Place of Birth : Raipur, Punjab

Jagadish Chandra Bose Date of Birth : Nov 30, 1858 Date of Death : 1937 Place of Birth : Bengal

Meghnad Saha Date of Birth : 1894 Date of Death : 1956 Place of Birth : Dacca

Subramanyan Chandrasekhar Date of Birth : Oct 19, 1910 Date of Death : Aug 21, 1995 Place of Birth : Lahore

Dr.Shanti Swaroop Bhatnagar Date of Birth : 1895 Date of Death : 1955 Place of Birth : Punjab

Srinivasa Ramanujan Date of Birth : Dec 22, 1887 Date of Death : Apr 26, 1920 Place of Birth : Tamil Nadu

Vikram.A.Sarabhai Date of Birth : 1919 Date of Death : 1971 Place of Birth : Ahmedabad

Professor Raj Reddy Date of Birth : - Place of Birth : India

Prafulla Chandra Roy Date of Birth : Aug 2, 1861 Date of Death : Jun 16, 1944 Place of Birth : Khulna (now in Bangladesh)

Satyendra Nath Bose Date of Birth : Jan 1, 1894 Date of Death : Feb 4, 1974 Place of Birth : Kolkata

Prasanta Chandra Mahalanobis Date of Birth : Jun 29, 1893 Date of Death : Jun 28, 1972 Place of Birth : India

Dr. Subhash Mukhopadhyay Date of Birth : - Date of Death : Jun 19, 1981 Place of Birth : Kolkata