UK Malaria risk closer could be much higher in future years

Health experts are fearing that increasing temperatures and climate change in the UK could bring an influx of deadly tropical diseases to these shores in the next few decades.

Mosquito-borne diseases such as Malaria, dengue fever, West Nile virus and chikungunya are primarily associated with being prevalent across Africa and Southern America, but could reach Britain in years to come, according to experts writing in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal by Dr Jolyon Medlock and Professor Steve Leach, of the emergency response department at Public Health England.

Confirmed cases of dengue fever, West Nile virus and chikungunya have already been seen in certain parts of Europe and Greece in particularly has witnessed high numbers of malaria cases as mosquitoes shift into new territories.

Conditions are thought to be warm enough for the Asian tiger mosquito to survive in Britain and this type of blood-sucking insect has already nestled in 25 different European countries, bringing with it dengue fever to Croatia and France, with chikungunya being spread to both Italy and France.

In France alone, there have been 200 cases of chikungunya, and by 2041 in London, conditions could allow for transmission by mosquitoes for one month a year in London by 2041 and for three months in the South-east by 2071 because of predicted temperature rises.

However, in the UK, climate change models are predicting higher temperatures and increased rainfall in the next few decades – offering mosquitoes “ideal conditions” to survive and spread their deadly diseases.

Remarkably, the UK is already thought to be home to up to 34 species of mosquito, with many f of these able to transmit malaria.

There is one climate model that shows that by the year 2030, southern England may generally increase in temperature enough for malaria to be transmitted for up to a third of the year. A different climate model even shows there could be conditions that suffice for malaria to be able to be transmitted for around two months of the year as far up the UK as southern Scotland.

“There is little doubt that climate change will affect vector-borne disease risk,” the authors warn in their paper.

They further state that despite climate change being a clear key issue in the transmission of diseases like dengue fever and malaria, other factors need to be taken into account, such as the availability of water for the mosquitoes to lay their eggs.

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.

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.

Huge breakthrough in the quest for a malaria vaccine

A vaccine for one of the world’s biggest killers – malaria – has become a step closer after researchers in the U.S.  made a breakthrough in a small early-stage clinical trial.

The new malaria vaccine is being tentatively named ‘PfSPZ’ and is unique as it contains sporozoites (SPZ) – a life cycle stage of live but weakened malaria Plasmodium falciparum parasites.

Details of the Phase-1 clinical trial were published yesterday in the journal Science. Developers of the vaccine say that the weakened, early stage parasites can actually help a person build up an immunity following an injection of a high enough dosage into the bloodstream.

Lead author Dr Robert Seder, from the Vaccine Research Center at the National Institutes of Health, in Maryland, said: “We were excited and thrilled by the result, but it is important that we repeat it, extend it and do it in larger numbers.”

It has been common knowledge amongst health experts for several decades that exposure to mosquitoes treated with radiation is highly effective as a malaria prevention method.

Unfortunately, evidence shows that roughly 1,000 mosquito bites are required over a time period to gradually develop a sufficient level of immunity.  Therefore, it is simply an unfeasible way to protect people.

Dr Seder added: “Based on the history, we knew dose was important because you needed 1,000 mosquito bites to get protection – this validates that. It allows us in future studies to increase the dose and alter the schedule of the vaccine to further optimise it. The next critical questions will be whether the vaccine is durable over a long period of time and can the vaccine protect against other strains of malaria.”

The new vaccine is being developed by a biotech company called Sanaria, based in Maryland, U.S., who irradiated lab-grown mosquitoes before extracting the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum.

Their Phase-1 clinical trial of PfSPZ involved 57 volunteers aged 18 to 45 who had no previous history of the malaria disease. The researchers administered varying strengths of PfSPZ to 40 of the participants and the other 17 received no vaccine whatsoever.

After a week’s analysis, no severe side effects were noted in any of the participants in the study. However, to determine how effective the malaria vaccine actually was, each person – including those who didn’t receive the vaccine – was exposed to bites from five malaria infected mosquitoes.

A week later everybody was analysed for infection and those not given the vaccine received treatment for malaria. It was found that those given high doses were significantly less likely to contract malaria in comparison to the others in the study.

Just three of the 15 participants who received higher doses actually became infected. However, 16 of 17 participants in the lower dosage group became infected and 11 of the 12 participants who were not vaccinated then became infected.

The study, conducted between October 2011 and October 2012, was hugely promising due to the fact none of the participants experienced any side effects from the vaccine. However, the researchers admit it could be years before the vaccine is available in communities where it is needed.

Dr William Schaffner, head of the preventive medicine department at Vanderbilt University’s medical school, said although it was a ‘scientific advance’, it could be as long as a 10 year wait before the malaria vaccine is scientifically proved, given approval, and made available for distribution.

He told CCN: “This is not a vaccine that’s ready for travellers to the developing world anytime soon. However, from the point of view of science dealing with one of the big-three infectious causes of death around the world, it’s a notable advance. And everybody will be holding their breath, watching to see whether this next trial works and how well it works.”

Of course, if you are travelling abroad in the next 10 years and need malaria prevention and treatment, there are other medications available right now. These include Doxycycline, Malarone, Paludrine, and Jungle Formula Maximum Pump Spray.  In addition, don’t forget to check the NHS Fit For Travel website where you will find the recommended malaria medication for your destination.

Andy Murray and Lionel Messi join campaigns to combat malaria

Famous sporting figures from around the world have offered their help in the battle against the potentially-deadly disease malaria.

Tennis star Andy Murray, who yesterday defeated Russian Mikhail Youzhny to reach the quarter finals of Wimbledon, has lent his support to charity Malaria No More UK.

Since their inception in 2009, Malaria No More UK have successfully pushed the coalition government to guarantee malaria is one of the key factors of its international development agenda and have secured a major coup in getting Andy Murray on board for their ‘Be The Net’ campaign – an interactive digital campaign to raise awareness about fighting the disease.

Murray, 26, spoke about malaria to the Huffington Post, saying: "In the past year I’ve won some of the biggest matches of my career but I’m still striving for the world to win the fight against malaria. Every minute a child dies unnecessarily from this disease, yet it is easy to prevent and costs less than a pack of tennis balls to treat. Be The Net is an easy way for us to come together and show our support for this winnable fight, something I am proud to support."

Members of the public are able to insert their face onto a virtual mosquito net via social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, or email and share the activity with their friends or family. Users can also develop their understanding about malaria and the huge challenges there are in combating the disease, in addition to being able email their local MP to show support in the UK’s help in battling malaria and decreasing the risks and deaths caused by it.

Arabella Gilchrist, Director of Communications for Malaria No More UK says: “This campaign is all about getting the public involved and empowered in a democratic movement to fight malaria – one of the best humanitarian investments on the planet. Andy’s the perfect fit for this campaign, he’s tenacious and persistent – Be The Net promotes the message that united we can win.”


However the tennis superstar is not the only sporting figure who is united in fighting malaria. On Thursday 27^th June, Barcelona and Argentina footballer and current FIFA World Player of the Year Lionel Messi arrived for a humanitarian trip to the West African country Senegal.

Messi, 26, was there in conjunction with Qatari football academy ASPIRE Football Dreams to help promote mosquito nets for a new anti-malaria program.

The organisations new initiative – Football Combating Malaria – hopes to distribute an initial 400,000 medicated bed nets across 10 countries in Africa, but aims to have over 1,000,000 to people across the continent each year in the very near future. Nearly 1,000,000 people are thought to have cheated death over the past 12 years by sleeping under nets coated with insecticide.

Despite this, according to the World Health Organization, during 2010 malaria was still responsible for an estimated 660,000 deaths around the world.  The 660,000 deaths emanated from a staggering approximate 219 million cases of the disease, which is preventable and treatable through medicines such as Doxycycline, Malarone and Paludrine.

Around 91% of those fatalities occur in Africa, where most of the deaths are children under the age of 5. Tragically, about 180 children die because of malaria every 90 minutes – the same time duration as a football match.

Speaking to BBC Sport, Messi opened up about the plight of malaria, saying: “I am really delighted to come to Senegal. My commitment to be part of this battle against malaria is relentless. Whenever I have the opportunity to help, I will not hesitate. There is no doubt that I’ll co-operate with organisations involved in this initiative to trim out the pernicious effects of malaria.”

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.

Travellers need strong vigilance against malaria and typhoid fever

In recent years more and more Brits have become fed up of the freezing cold temperatures over the winter season and many even decide to jet off to sunnier climates and areas such as the Tropics, where necessities to stave off the cold such as electric blankets, hot water bottles and a piping hot brew are simply not required!

Upon arriving back in the UK though, what would you do if you begin to feel unwell after a week or two of being back? In these instances, symptoms such as muscular aches/pains, diarrhoea, vomiting and a high temperature are commonly (and usually incorrectly) blamed on simple problems such as seasonal flu or food poisoning from out-of-date food or a dodgy takeaway meal. In fact, some of these symptoms are not too dis-similar to those suffered by over a million Brits recently with the norovirus epidemic which is still rife in many areas.

However, if you are feeling slightly under the weather after a visit to tropical regions such as West Africa, Southeast Asia, India, the Caribbean, etc., then it could be a cause for concern and something more serious than just a seasonal flu or food poisoning.

The findings of one particular study, published online yesterday in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene, have suggested that travel illnesses such as malaria and typhoid ought to be discussed with your GP following a visit to a tropical climate. In addition though, Medical Specialists Pharmacy strongly advise that these and many other travel illnesses such as traveller’s diarrhoea and dengue also be discussed, before travelling to your destination where there may be a high risk of such diseases.  To prevent contracting malaria, there are numerous antimalarial medications available from Medical Specialists for anybody visiting a country of risk. These include Doxycycline, Paludrine and Malarone – with the latter also able to treat the disease if you should get it.

University of Oslo researcher Mogens Jensenius, MD, PhD, and his team looked at the GeoSentinel surveillance network database to attain an incredible 15 years worth of information; this comprising of data contained on 82,825 returning travellers from Europe, North America, Israel, Japan, Australia and New Zealand. All had requested treatment for different health problems from June 1996 through to August 2011. It was ascertained that 4.4% (3,655) of these people had contracted either malaria, typhoid fever, or another type of deadly tropical disease. In total, 13 deaths were documented from the 3,655 patients and 10 of these were due to malaria.

Malaria was actually the most prevalent of the tropical diseases, seen in 76.9% of the diagnoses. The disease is caused by the Plasmodium parasite. The parasite is passed on to humans through the bites of infected female mosquitoes. Symptoms include muscular pain, headaches, diarrhoea, vomiting, severe sweats and chills and a fever of 38C (100.4F) or more.  

The second most common tropical disease was typhoid fever. Caused by the Salmonella typhi bacterium, it is an infection that may spread through the body after the person consumes food or water that has been contaminated with a small amount of infected faeces or urine. Symptoms include stomach pain and rashes in the first week of illness. During the second week, the sufferer will likely experience a worsening of symptoms that can include abdominal pain, weight loss and a fever that increases in temperature to about 39–40C (103–104F).

Both conditions are fatal without a prompt diagnosis and treatment; however those who contract malaria are more likely to die than those who contract typhoid fever, which can be treated in merely a few days with antibiotics.

Surprisingly, not one of the 80,000 had caught the often-fatal Ebola virus – one of the top-feared diseases in travellers due to its 90% fatality rate. ‘Ebola haemorrhagic fever’ as it is also known, occurs mainly via outbreaks within remote villages in Central and West Africa that are close to tropical rainforests.

Researcher Mogens Jensenius commented on the findings in the study, stressing just how serious the issue of tropical diseases is. He said: “While diagnosis and treatment of malaria and typhoid fever and many other tropical diseases have improved greatly over the years, people still can die from them if they are not treated quickly after their symptoms begin. Doctors and nurses in Western countries need to be vigilant in considering these potentially life-threatening tropical infections in recently-returned travellers with fevers, and identify and treat them quickly.”

Calls for a global treaty to clamp down on counterfeit drugs

Experts are calling for the introduction of a global treaty to fight the growing problem of trading in potentially fatal counterfeit medicines, of which some of the risks we have previously described back in February . The demands might have something to do with the fact that currently there are bizarrely more sanctions in place regarding the trading of illegal tobacco than counterfeit drugs. In addition, the World Health Organization (WHO) claim that in less developed nations, roughly over one in every 10 drug products are fake and around a third of malaria medicines (i.e. Malarone and Paludrine) are counterfeit, particularly a major issue in certain areas of Africa and Asia.

In more developed nations such as the UK and the U.S., patients can relax somewhat in that medicine safety is a lot better, however there is still a risk of adverse reactions or even deaths being caused as a result of substandard and falsified drugs. This was shown recently when a contaminated batch of methylprednisolone acetate steroid injections that were given to patients in the U.S. for back pain, resulted in an outbreak of fungal meningitisand subsequently the deaths of 24 people.

In a paper published in the British Medical Journal on Wednesday, academics and health professionals demanded for the introduction of a new international law to prevent the flood of lethal drugs into the market.

Their article, argues strenuously that a fake drugs treaty is required, similar to those that already exist to combat money laundering and human trafficking. The publishing of the paper comes just week before 100 states are due to congregate in Beunos Aires, Argentina, and conduct the first meeting of its kind that aims to find effective ways on how the tackle the global problem.

However, the lead author of the report, Amir Attaran of the University of Ottawa, was angered on Monday after being informed by WHO that he and other non-governmental representatives were forbidden from attending, after an objection by India, whose large drugs industry is responsible for manufacturing cheap generic versions of medications. India believe that Western governments backed by ‘Big Pharma’, are using the counterfeit drugs fight as a smokescreen for their real aim; restricting trade in unpatented medicines that are actually urgently required by the poor.

Attaran blasted it was a ‘scandal’ that only government officials were permitted to attend the meeting in Argentina to discuss strategy for fighting counterfeit drugs. He is confused that by under the Framework Convention on Tobacco Control, tobacco products must be tracked and criminalises illicit trade globally, “oddly making the law tougher on cigarette falsification than on medicine falsification” he says.

Attaran continued: “The protocol will now make it a requirement to track and trace tobacco products. Cigarette packets can carry serial numbers so it is possible to track them from beginning to end. If this is something you can do for a $5 cigarette packet I do not see why we can’t do it for a $3,000 packet of drugs that could save your life. In Canada we have seen a fake version of the heart drug Avastin come into the country that contains no active drug, just starch and nail polish remover. When you are dealing with a medicine like that if there was a serial number on it you would be able to easily see if it was fake.”

Medical Specialists agree that action needs to be taken to stem the tide of deadly drugs reaching unsuspecting patients. For this to happen though there clearly needs to be a lot less distrust amongst government, public health campaigners and pharmaceutical companies.

Patients around the globe never need to worry about dangerous fakes when dealing with Medical Specialists Pharmacy. Established in 1994 and becoming the UK’s first legal online clinic in 2001, we are fully registered with the General Pharmaceutical Council (GPhC) and also a member of the National Pharmacy Association (NPA). Our team of Doctors are registered with the General Medical Council (GMC) and our Pharmacists are registered with the Royal Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain (RPSGB).

Counterfeiters in Nigeria and America receive heavy punishment

Over the course of this calendar year, there has been an endless number of cases to emerge that involve the production and distribution of counterfeit medicines, and these are only the ones that authorities have managed to successfully shut down. There are illegal operations still active all across the globe, with criminals always trying to conjure up new methods of tricking the public into purchasing these dangerous medicines. However, their activities cannot and will not last forever, with Medical Specialists Pharmacy and many other organisations around the world determined to bring them to justice.

Therefore it brings us with great delight to report of two such instances to occur in the last few weeks of criminals finding their comeuppance. The first happened just 11 days ago in Nigeria and surprisingly did not involve erectile dysfunction medications, which seems to be a common type of counterfeited drug. Instead it was antimalarials such as Malarone and Paludrine that had found themselves being the source of imitation.

After receiving knowledge about the existence of the fake drugs, officers from The Nigerian National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control (NAFDAC) swooped onto a market within the south-eastern city of Enugu. After the raid, authorities had amassed a haul of $15,000 worth of fake pharmaceuticals, which could have proved fatal if sold to the unsuspecting public of Nigeria. Fake drugs are often manufactured in dirty, unhygienic warehouses and sometimes can contain little or no of the genuine active ingredient, or remarkably harmful industrial compounds.

Udekpo Ekpo, acting head, south-east zone at NAFDAC, spoke of the capture of the drugs and said, “This exercise was actually necessitated by reports that there are some fake brands of antimalarial drugs in the market. Some of them are in the market without NAFDAC registration number.”

Just one week after this bust in Nigeria, 40 year old Gregory Bochter found out the hard way that dealing with counterfeit drugs does not pay. Bochter, of Volusia County, Florida, initially submitted a guilty plea back in May to the trafficking of the two popular counterfeit erectile dysfunction medications, Viagra and Cialis.

He had obtained the fake pills from China, one of the world’s biggest exporters of counterfeit drugs. Homeland Security investigators had managed to intervene and apprehend one of his shipments and discovered in excess of 1,300 prescription pills. The pills only comprised of just 30% of their active ingredient, thus meaning they would probably be ineffective to any unsuspecting men who bought them.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials claim that even after they had seized Bochter’s delivery of fake pills, he then brazenly continued to be involved in more illegal trafficking for another two months. Unfortunately for him, he has now been sentenced to eight months behind bars and is being forced to cough up a hefty $150,000 in restitution fees.  If this wasn’t bad enough for, Bochter faces three years of supervised release upon his return to society in 2020.