• Question: i heard on the new the other day that scientists have discovered a drug that can slow malaria for up to 48 hours - but I didn't understand how it worked. Can you explain?

    Asked by iluvgok to Julian on 17 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Not sure of the particular drug you mean, but most anti-malarials work by stopping the parasite eating. When it is inside red blood cells, the parasites grow and multiply by breaking down hemoglobin, which to us is the protein that carries oxygen around our body, but to the parasite is just food! Lots of anti-malarials interfere with this process in some way, killing the organism. The trouble is that the parasites rapidly develop resistance to the drugs we throw at them, and there is no vaccine. Doing our best..

Comments

  • Photo: iluvgok

    iluvgok commented on :

    so does that mean that there will never be a cure? what does that mean for the people of africa and peru etc?

  • Photo: Julian

    Julian commented on :

    It just depends what you mean by a cure. There are cures now that work for many many people. We just need to keep coming up with new ones, and also better ways of applying them so that everyone gets covered. There are some people who hope that malaria can be eradicated completely – I certainly hope they are right, but it will take a while.