The Future of Malaria: The World’s True Killer
By Rishi Ganesh
As you read this, you sit in the midst of a truly unprecedented time. For one, a pandemic has managed to break out in the modern world, affecting lives and families forever. Despite the technology available to much of the western world, disease remains a constant. From the plague to yellow fever, the Spanish Flu to the current COVID pandemic, disease has been at the forefront of human issues for millennia. However, for all the talk about disease, mankind has succumbed to a far longer and more devastating disease – malaria.
Malaria has ravaged the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, as well as some parts of South America. According to the CDC, malaria is transmitted in roughly 87 different nations, causing over 240 million cases in 2020 alone, with over half a million deaths. While compared to the quick devastation from COVID, malaria has been working for far longer, and in the 20th century, it may have caused 300 million deaths. Malaria is transmitted through mosquito vectors through a protozoan named Plasmodium falciparum. Malaria also poses significant infrastructure threats, as money is often used up in order to purchase drugs and supplies, as well as launch public health interventions and fund treatment of the disease. In total, the CDC estimates that a number significantly larger than $12 billion dollars per year is lost in combating malaria.
For decades, scientists have tried and failed to find a vaccine to combat the deadly disease. On January 4th, however, a team of scientists from the University of Maryland placed the first brick towards the future of malaria as a pandemic. In a three-stage vaccine trial in Burkina Faso, Professors Matthew B. Laurins and Mark T. Gladwin were able to safely administer a vaccine containing live, weakened P. falciparum, producing a success rate hovering close to 50%. This represents a huge step in the fight against malaria, but a 50% success rate is just the beginning of a new movement to eradicate malaria.
New study proposals (including a very rudimentary one I co-authored) introduce a possible new method to take the next step and fully begin to eradicate malaria from mosquitoes in the first place: through genetic modification. It’s possible that inserting protein creation genes into common symbionts of mosquitoes could lead to the generation of proteins that inhibit the growth of P. falciparum altogether! Of course, ideas like this are very unproven as compared to the solid foundations behind vaccine technology, but if they were to work, they could spell the absolute end to not only malaria, but many other animal and insect-vectored diseases as well. Genetic modification very well could spell the future of medicine in more ways than one.
If successful, experiments like these will provide insight regarding the creation and transmission of Plasmodium falciparum, which will in turn lead to more breakthroughs and improvements in the treatment and prevention of malaria. Using genetic information such as the flhDC gene in malaria shell inhibition, scientists may be able to create further preventative modifications and enter new methods to curing disease. In essence, malaria is a pandemic that has gone on for far too long and claimed far too many lives. Research has taken steps further than ever before, and it can continue to do so with funding. Until then, the only protection that many families and individuals have is through measures such as mosquito nets and bug spray. Against Malaria is one of the leading foundations towards providing equipment and support to people at risk for malaria. You can donate here: https://www.againstmalaria.com/ Additionally, every source used in this article can be found in the paper linked above.
P.S. Now that I am officially a college student, I’m returning to posting blogs once again! I hope using my new knowledge I can grow and share what I’ve learned, and continue to expand my articles both intellectually and as a writer! Thank you so much.
-Rishi
