• Question: Is there any treatment for malaria? Or in what way can be it be cured or for it to 'get better'?

    Asked by tbeckdeutschland to Julian on 14 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 14 Mar 2011:

      Yes, there are several drugs that treat malaria by killing the parasite that causes it. So why do we still have malaria, you might then be wondering? Two big reasons really. One is that the parasites rapidly develop resistance to the drugs. Some of the older drugs are now no longer used at all because resistance is so widespread, and there are resistance fears now about even the very latest drugs that were released only 8 years ago.

      The second reason is simply that not everyone who needs them has access to the drugs. This is partly just economics. Some of the people affected by malaria live in very poor countries, where the total budget that the government has to spend on healthcare might be $15-$20 per person per year. If a child gets malaria several times a year (quite common), and the treatment costs $5-$10 a time, it just isn’t going to happen. In other cases, the drugs may be counterfeit and not effective enough. Finally, simply getting the right mediction in rural parts of the world can be tough.

      Solving basic health infrastructure problems, and increasing donations of anti-malarials to the worlds poorest countries would make a huge difference to the malaria mortality rate, although the problem of drug resistance would still be there.

Comments

  • Photo: tbeckdeutschland

    tbeckdeutschland commented on :

    Thanks for the reply,Do you know what country has the highest frequency of Malaria?

    • Photo: Julian

      Julian commented on :

      Several countries in west Africa have incredibly high rates. One way to measure the rate is something called the EIR – the entomological innoculation rate. It means, how many times each year will you be bitten by a mosquito carrying malaria. In some places, that number can be 600+ – ie. you get bitten by an infected mosquito about twice every day.

      The real number is really hard to pin down in some countries, because some of the really worst hit countries are ones where there isn’t a very stable government (like Democratic Republic of Congo), so there aren’t very good records. It will definitely be in west of central Africa though.

      • Photo: tbeckdeutschland

        tbeckdeutschland commented on :

        ok, thanks. For illnesses like malaria, i have heard that they will always remain in your system, is this the same for flus such as Microplasma?

        • Photo: Julian

          Julian commented on :

          Now we start getting complicated. Malaria is actually caused by several different parasites, all called Plasmodium. There are four species that routinely infect humans, and some of those species do stay in your system for a long time. Luckily for us, Plasmodium falciparum, which is the species that causes almost all the deaths, does not. Still, no fun to be infected by one of the others then getting resurgences every few years for 20 years or more…