{"id":1784,"date":"2021-08-10T10:01:42","date_gmt":"2021-08-10T10:01:42","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/horizon.peachpuff-wolverine-566518.hostingersite.com\/?p=1784"},"modified":"2021-08-10T10:01:42","modified_gmt":"2021-08-10T10:01:42","slug":"dry-season-parasite-behaviour-could-provide-new-route-for-malaria-treatment","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceblog.com\/horizon\/1784\/dry-season-parasite-behaviour-could-provide-new-route-for-malaria-treatment\/","title":{"rendered":"Dry season parasite behaviour could provide new route for malaria treatment"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n

Scientists believe they have cracked the question of how the malaria parasite keeps a low profile in infected people during the dry season in Africa in order to avoid immune attention and trigger outbreaks when the rains and mosquitoes return. The knowledge could open up new ways to combat the disease, which\u00a0<\/strong>killed 409,000 people, mostly children, in 2019<\/strong><\/a>\u00a0alone.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\n

Malaria is not caused by a bacteria or a virus, but by a single-celled protozoa called\u00a0Plasmodium\u00a0<\/em>that parasitises humans. When a person is bitten by an infected mosquito, a few parasites flow in and journey towards their liver. They multiply there and eventually, in a new guise, the parasite bursts from liver cells and this time seeks out red blood cells.<\/p>\n

The parasite squeezes into a blood cell, multiplies and then breaks out to infect more cells. As it multiplies in the blood, a person may suffer symptoms of malaria, which include fever, headache and chills. If a mosquito bites this infected individual, it can suck up the parasite, which reproduces in the insect\u2019s gut, and infects whoever gets bitten next by the mosquito. The more people with parasite in their blood, the more mosquitoes will carry and pass on malaria to other people.<\/p>\n

The most common and severe form of malaria is caused by the species\u00a0Plasmodium falciparum.\u00a0<\/em>In areas where malaria is endemic, adults usually develop immunity to a level where they can keep parasite numbers down and not suffer symptoms.<\/p>\n

\u2018The parasite is tricky,\u2019 said Dr Richard Thomson-Luque, a parasitologist at Heidelberg University Hospital, Germany. \u2018You can develop some immunity, but you need several rounds of infection.\u2019 Children under the age of five, however, have little or no immunity and they account for 67% of all deaths from malaria.<\/p>\n

Dry season<\/strong><\/p>\n

Malaria hits Africa hardest. The continent was home to 94% of malaria cases and deaths in 2019,\u00a0according to the World Health Organization<\/a>. In some parts of Africa, illness and death from malaria only occur during the six months of the rainy season. There are few, if any, mosquitoes around during the dry season, and no new infections or illnesses. But somehow the parasite lives on.<\/p>\n

Dr Silvia Portugal, a parasitologist at Germany\u2019s Max Planck Institute for Infection Biology in Berlin, has been investigating what happens during the dry season by studying blood samples taken from children in a village in Mali. This is part of\u00a0a five-year research project<\/a>\u00a0called DrySeasonPf, looking at the behaviour of\u00a0Plasmodium falciparum\u00a0<\/em>in the dry season.<\/em><\/p>\n

Dr Thomson-Luque, who had worked in her lab, travelled to Mali during the dry season in March 2018, as part of a related project called\u00a0NotToKill-NotToDie<\/a>. This is a time when people do not suffer from malaria symptoms. \u2018People are not sick during the dry season, from January to May,\u2019 Dr Thomson-Luque explained. \u2018Only when the rain starts.\u2019<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

\u2018People are not sick during the dry season, from January to May. Only when the rain starts.\u2019<\/p>\n