Malaria moving to higher altitudes due to climate change

Rising temperatures and climate change could put people living in the tropics at risk of contracting the mosquito-borne malaria, according to scientists who have spent two decades monitoring the deadly disease within two densely populated mountainous regions in South America and Africa.

Those residing in higher altitudes have typically not been at risk from the disease, as mosquitoes carrying the malaria parasite find it difficult to survive in the cooler air.

Professor Mercedes Pascual University of Michigan, who led the research, says: “The risk of the disease decreases with altitude and this is why historically people have settled in these higher regions.”

Health experts have spent years arguing if malaria will move because of climate change, and this is one of the only studies of its kind that demonstrates how malaria can migrate higher with a temperature increase. This puts millions of people at risk, who historically have been benefiting from living in malaria-free areas in the high-altitude tropics.

The study involved an analysis of the densely populated areas in the highlands of Colombia and Ethiopia as there were comprehensive records kept for the two of both temperature and malaria cases from the 1990s to 2005.

It was discovered that during warmer years, malaria managed to transmit into the mountains and for the years when the temperatures were cooler, the disease was restricted to lower altitudes.

“We have identified that malaria does indeed move up and down and that the movement is temperature dependent. It’s been difficult to prove and people have been questioning it now for 20 years,” said Menno Bouma of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who was involved in the research.

“The implications are that if this is true, and that a global warming is occurring leading to an increase in temperatures, then malaria will increase at higher altitudes where many people live. The high altitude areas in the tropics are particularly highly populated,” Dr Bouma added.

Dr Bouma says that those in the higher altitudes do not have any protective immunity as they are not exposed to malaria, meaning they could be susceptible to potentially even more serious and fatal cases of the disease.

Around half of Ethiopia’s population live at an altitude between 1,600m (5,250ft) and 2,400m, and the scientists estimate there could be a surge in malaria cases. They predict even just a 1C increase in average local temperatures will mean there will be three million children more children who will contract malaria annually.

“We have estimated that, based on the distribution of malaria with altitude, a 1C rise in temperature could lead to an additional three million cases in under-15-year-olds per year,” says Professor Pascual.

The most recent figures released by the World Health Organization show an estimated 207 million cases of malaria in 2012, resulting in about 627,000 deaths. The majority of these deaths occur among children in Africa. Clearly more work needs to be done into control efforts of the disease, getting malaria treatment and prevention methods to the millions who need them.

In addition, if you are travelling to particularly at-risk countries, The NHS Malaria Fit For Travel website offers advice about antimalarials such as Malarone and includes a map to show what other diseases are common in certain regions.

UK pledge £1 billion in the fight against AIDS, TB and malaria

The UK will give £1 billion to the Geneva-based Global Fund over the next three years in the help to combat AIDS, tuberculosis (TB) and malaria, International Development Secretary Justine Greening has announced at the United Nations in New York. Ms Greening said fighting preventable diseases was “in all of our interests.”

The Global Fund was founded in 2002 and is the world’s largest donor of funds to fight the three deadly and infectious diseases, proving prevention, treatment and care programmes.

The initiative is believed to have helped to save 8.7 million lives and 5.3 million people with HIV are now benefiting from antiretroviral therapy, 11 million new TB cases have been detected and treated and 340 million insecticide treated nets have been given to families to provide protection from malaria.

Britain’s staggering £1 billion pledge will save “a life every three minutes” and now doubles the current amount of money being donated and leaves the UK only second to the United States as the biggest donor of funds.

Throughout the next three years the UK will be involved in the delivery of vital antiretroviral treatment to an additional 750,000 people who have HIV, in addition to an extra 32 million insecticide-treated mosquito nets and over a million people will receive treatment for TB.

The Department for International Development has predicted that the generous funding provided by the UK will save the lives of 590,400 people between 2014 and 2016. This equates to one life saved every three minutes.

“AIDS, TB and malaria are among the world’s biggest killers despite being entirely preventable and treatable,” Ms Greening said at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York on Monday, where spoke on the new funding.

She continued: “The Global Fund has already helped save millions of lives but we must keep up the momentum if we are to beat these diseases for good. It is in all our interests to help people live longer, healthier, more productive lives so we all need to play our part in working towards a world free of HIV/Aids, malaria and TB.”

Bono, frontman for rock band U2 co-founder of the One foundation, said: “The UK’s pledge of up to a billion pounds for the fight against Aids, TB and malaria means what once seemed impossible could now be within our grasp. Through this smart investment in one of the most effective disease-fighting funds in history, we could witness the defeat of these global killers in our lifetime. David Cameron and Justine Greening have given us a billion reasons to believe we can do it, but Britain’s pledge will only be delivered if others step up too. Australia, Canada, Germany: your move.”

Prevention of malaria has improved significantly in recent times. The World Health Organisation’s World Malaria Report for 2012 stated that 50 countries were on target for lowering malaria incidence by 75% between 2000 and 2015. Moreover, 30 million insecticide-treated nets were given out during January and July of 2013 through Global Fund-supported programmes.

TB, the world’s second biggest infectious killer after HIV/AIDS, is slowly declining, albeit slowly. Funding from the Global Fund has resulted in detection and treatment of 11 million smear-positive cases of TB, up from 9.7 million at the end of 2012.

It was calculated that as of 1 July the Global Fund had helped to pioneer programmes resulting in 5.3 million people with HIV to receive antiretroviral therapy, up from 4.2 million at the end of 2012.
If you are travelling abroad and require malaria medication for prevention and treatment, Doxycycline, Malarone, Paludrine, and Jungle Formula Maximum Pump Spray are options worth considering.  In addition, don’t forget to check the NHS Fit For Travel website where you will find the recommended malaria medication for your destination.

Malaria-infected mosquitoes more enticed by human odour

Malaria-carrying mosquitoes are more drawn to human scent compared with mosquitoes that do not carry the parasite, suggests the findings of a new study.

For the study, led by Dr James Logan of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, mosquitoes carrying the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum were exposed to nylon socks that had been worn by one of the study authors (Renate Smallegange from Wageningen University in the Netherlands) for about 20 hours previously.

Ms Smallegange state the socks were used as ‘bait’ for the 176 mosquitoes that were analysed in the laboratory. She says: “Volatiles emitted by human feet are known to be highly attractive to Anopheles gambiae females.”

It was estimated that the infected mosquitoes were approximately three times more likely to land and try and bite on the worn socks compared to the mosquitoes without any parasite. For study purposes, the species of mosquito analysed was the Anopheles gambiae – the cause of high transmission rates of malaria in Africa. Both infected and healthier mosquitoes were not particularly keen on unworn socks that were also tested.

Experts are already aware that Anopheles gambiae mosquitoes have certain odour receptors which are effective at picking out specific human scents. The scientists involved in the study are convinced that it is the parasites which are creating a heightened craving for human smells, ergo increasing a risk of UK holiday makers being bitten in the dangerous areas for malaria.

Dr Logan was interviewed by BBC News and explained the findings in the study, commenting: “We think the parasite is giving them a heightened sense of smell. We are hypothesizing there is an alteration somewhere in their olfactory system that allows them to find us quicker,” which would make it more likely that the parasite enters the blood stream, ensuring its survival and the spread of the disease.”

The researchers conclude they are unsure how precisely the parasite alters mosquitoes’ sense of smell, in addition to which component(s) of human odour is the most is deemed most appealing to the mosquitoes as human skin emits over 350 different odour molecules. If this information could be attained from future studies, effective traps could be devised to catch the infected mosquitoes and hopefully lessen the risk of a disease that infects around 200,000 million people around the world each year, killing over 600,000.

If you are about to travel abroad and are unsure of what potential health risks there are or which medications are suitable for your area of travel, Medical Specialists Pharmacy recommend visiting the NHS Fit For Travel website.

Here you can click onto the continent and country you are about to travel to, see a highly detailed list of preventative measures to take before and during travel, what diseases are prominent in that particular country as well as a list of the symptoms of each, and also what medications/immunisations are advisable – i.e. Malarone, Paludrine and Doxycycline are all prescription medications to prevent malaria, with Malarone also able to treat the disease if you contract it. All three are available now from the Medical Specialists Holiday and Travel area of the website, where you can also find treatments for the prevention and control of travel sickness; Kwells, Kwells Kids and Avomine.