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Malaria – an old medicine but a new treatment…
Could ivermectin – an antiparasitic medicine widely used to combat onchocerciasis in sub-Saharan Africa, and to combat heartworms in veterinary medicine – be the solution to malaria? Its ability to kill the Anopheles mosquito, the vector of malaria, has, in fact, recently been demonstrated. This is good news in the fight against this disease which each year kills around 800,000 people worldwide, according to the WHO.
Scientists trapped mosquitoes in dwellings in villages – in Senegal in particular – where the population had been taking the drug in question. They then compared these insects with mosquitoes taken from areas where the population had not received ivermectin. The results showed a 79% drop in the number of mosquitoes carrying Plasmodium Falciparum in the areas where ivermectin had been administered two weeks beforehand. During the same period, the number of insects carrying malaria had increased by 246% in the other villages!
However, although the adult mosquitoes die in the days following their “blood feast” on an individual treated with ivermectin, the young insects survive because they have not yet fed. Which is why this weapon against malaria will need to be administered repeatedly during the malaria transmission season.
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18 article(s)
Malaria – good results reported in Senegal
Malaria – 750,000 children saved in 10 years…
Malaria – let’s keep up the fight!
Malaria – the Gambia success story
Malaria – the hunt for a new vaccine hots up…
ASAQ – a new antimalarial approved by the WHO
Malaria: Rwanda and Ethiopia score a victory
Malaria – INTERPOL exposes trafficking in counterfeit medicines in China
Institut Pasteur develops a candidate vaccine against malaria
