3 ms·

This is great news which will save many lives. We will need to do more though. There are species of Plasmodium which survive on non-human hosts which means the

by yyyk 6y ago

This is great news which will save many lives. We will need to do more though. There are species of Plasmodium which survive on non-human hosts which means the disease will always be waiting - and this vaccination regimen is very demanding, so interruption or underinvestment will make Malaria come back. IMHO to finish off malaria we'll need some other approaches to complement it, and my suggestion is to get rid of the specific mosquito species that carries the disease. That's what happened in all developed countries long before a vaccine ever existed, and that's a good solution for poor countries (this time, we can use more discriminate methods).

0-_-0 6y ago
Gene drives might be able to get rid of entire species: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive
Fomite 6y ago
There's a lot of debate in the field as to whether or not it's actually possible to eradicate malaria. Partially because mosquito eradication programs failed in the core "malaria belt" even with substantial international investment. There is work on this though, primarily around introducing genetically modified mosquitos.
- rossdavidh 6y ago
  Well, the attempt in Brazil did not go as planned: https://www.dw.com/en/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-breed-in-brazil/a-50414340 https://www.dw.com/en/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-breed-... "The hope of the Ministry of Health was to reduce mosquito populations by 90 percent. And this worked well during the field trial. About 18 months after the end of the experiment, the mosquito population returned to what it had been before."
  - Fomite 6y ago
    Indeed. Ecological systems are complicated and remarkably resilient.
    - stjohnswarts 6y ago
      that's a good thing since humans seem to be full steam ahead on destroying them (at least currently)
  - yyyk 6y ago
    It's was not unexpected that levels bounced back eventually - we'd expect them to, after a small trial lasting only 27 weeks. Arguably if this approach (or the gene drive one) was sustained and combined with the standard treatments we'll get rid of these things or at least malaria.
greazy 6y ago
> There are species of Plasmodium which survive on non-human hosts which means the disease will always be waiting A small correction, the species you're referring to don't 'survive' in non-human hosts, but actually the other way around. There are probably thousands of plasmodium species that infect everything from lizards to birds to monkeys. In monkeys (eg simian) there are a large number of pasmodium species that have undergone zoonotic transfer thereby infecting humans. It's believed the 'last man standing' in defeating malaria will be P. Knowlesi, or monkey malaria. It can infect humans, and seems to be quiet common in Borneo Island. But it hasn't to my knowledge, started transmitting human to human. But without a doubt we will continually see spill-over events of not only Malaria but other parasites.

by yyyk 6y ago

0-_-0 6y ago

Gene drives might be able to get rid of entire species: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gene_drive

Fomite 6y ago

There's a lot of debate in the field as to whether or not it's actually possible to eradicate malaria. Partially because mosquito eradication programs failed in the core "malaria belt" even with substantial international investment. There is work on this though, primarily around introducing genetically modified mosquitos.

rossdavidh 6y ago
Well, the attempt in Brazil did not go as planned: https://www.dw.com/en/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-breed-in-brazil/a-50414340 https://www.dw.com/en/genetically-modified-mosquitoes-breed-... "The hope of the Ministry of Health was to reduce mosquito populations by 90 percent. And this worked well during the field trial. About 18 months after the end of the experiment, the mosquito population returned to what it had been before."
- Fomite 6y ago
  Indeed. Ecological systems are complicated and remarkably resilient.
  - stjohnswarts 6y ago
    that's a good thing since humans seem to be full steam ahead on destroying them (at least currently)
- yyyk 6y ago
  It's was not unexpected that levels bounced back eventually - we'd expect them to, after a small trial lasting only 27 weeks. Arguably if this approach (or the gene drive one) was sustained and combined with the standard treatments we'll get rid of these things or at least malaria.

greazy 6y ago

> There are species of Plasmodium which survive on non-human hosts which means the disease will always be waiting A small correction, the species you're referring to don't 'survive' in non-human hosts, but actually the other way around. There are probably thousands of plasmodium species that infect everything from lizards to birds to monkeys. In monkeys (eg simian) there are a large number of pasmodium species that have undergone zoonotic transfer thereby infecting humans. It's believed the 'last man standing' in defeating malaria will be P. Knowlesi, or monkey malaria. It can infect humans, and seems to be quiet common in Borneo Island. But it hasn't to my knowledge, started transmitting human to human. But without a doubt we will continually see spill-over events of not only Malaria but other parasites.