Vitamin A may protect kids against malaria

WASHINGTON: Vitamin A may protect children against malaria, especially if administered during the wet season when malaria-infected mosquitoes are most prevalent, a new study has claimed. 

Children under age 5 living in sub-Saharan Africa were 54 per cent less likely to develop malaria if they had been given a single large dose of vitamin A, the research led by the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health suggests. 

Researchers said their findings, indicate that vitamin A may protect children against the mosquito-borne malaria parasite, especially if administered under certain conditions, such as during the wet season, when malaria-infected mosquitoes are most prevalent. 

"More than half of the world's population is at risk of contracting malaria, and the disease is a leading killer of children in some parts of the world, so we urgently need to find better ways to combat it," said study leader Maria-Graciela Hollm-Delgado, a postdoctoral fellow in the department of international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. 

"Our research found that children who received vitamin A supplementation were less likely to become infected with malaria. Now we need to test vitamin A in a randomized controlled clinical trial to better understand whether this could really be an effective way to prevent this disease," said Hollm-Delgado. 

For their research, Hollm-Delgado and her colleagues analyzed national survey data from four sub-Saharan countries (Burkina Faso, Mozambique, Rwanda and Senegal) on more than 6,100 children between the ages of 6 and 59 months. 

The researchers were looking for possible links between malaria rates and several types of childhood vaccines as well as vitamin A supplementation. Only vitamin A was found to be protective against the disease. 

Vitamin A appeared to be more protective under certain circumstances, including when administered during the rainy season, as well as when given to older children and when more time had passed since supplementation. 

The researchers aren't certain why vitamin A would reduce the rate of malaria infection, but they suspect it is because vitamin A, which is known to boost immunity, and improve the ability to fight off infection, may help the body clear out the malaria parasite more quickly. 

The study was published in the journal eLife.

Existing drug may treat deadly form of malaria

WASHINGTON: A drug already approved for treating other diseases in humans may be useful as a treatment for deadly cerebral malaria, according to Harvard researchers. 

Researchers discovered a novel link between food intake during the early stages of infection and the outcome of the disease, identifying two molecular pathways that could serve as new targets for the treatment. 

"We have known for a long time that nutrition can affect the course of infectious disease, but we were surprised at how rapidly a mild reduction in food intake could improve outcome in a mouse malaria model," said senior author James Mitchell, associate professor of genetics and complex diseases at Harvard T H Chan School of Public Health. 

"However, the real importance of this work is the identification of unexpected molecular pathways underlying cerebral malaria that we can now target with existing drugs," said Mitchell. 

Cerebral malaria - a severe form of the disease - is the most serious consequence of infection by the parasite Plasmodium falciparum, resulting in seizures, coma, and death. 

Currently there is a lack of safe treatment options for cerebral malaria, particularly for use in children, who represent the majority of cases. 

Even patients who receive early treatment with standard antimalarial chemotherapeutic agents run a high risk of dying, despite clearance of the parasite, researchers said. 

Moreover, around 25 per cent of survivors develop neurological complications and cognitive impairment. 

Lead authors Pedro Mejia and J Humberto Trevino-Villarreal found that leptin - a hormone secreted from fat tissue with roles in suppressing appetite, but also in activating adaptive immune and inflammatory responses - is increased upon infection in a mouse model of cerebral malaria, and turns out to be a major bad actor in promoting neurological symptoms and death. 

Mejia, Trevino-Villarreal and colleagues showed that reducing leptin using a variety of means, either genetically, pharmacologically, or nutritionally by reducing food intake during the first two days of infection, protected against cerebral malaria. 

Protection was due in part to a preservation of the blood brain barrier, which prevented the entry of blood cells carrying the parasites into the brain. 

As rapamycin is already FDA-approved for use in humans, trials in humans for cerebral malaria treatment with this drug may be possible, according to the researchers. 

The study appears in the journal Nature Communications. 

DK, Udupi account for 50% of malaria cases

MANGALURU: Dakshina Kannada and Udupi are unlikely to shake off the dubious tag of being the malaria capital of Karnataka anytime soon. This was only reinforced at an inter-departmental co-ordination meeting of officials of the two districts on malaria here on Thursday, where the chilling statistics revealed that the two districts put together have reported more than 9,000 cases of malaria in 2014, which is more than 50% of total malaria cases in Karnataka.

Dr B G Prakash, joint director (malaria and filaria) said the number of cases of the dreaded vector-borne disease in Dakshina Kannada district have increased from 7,025 in 2010 to 8,240 cases in 2014. Number of malaria cases in Udupi district in the same period has increased from 1,528 cases to 1,639 cases. Out of the 8,240 cases, 7,313 cases are from Mangaluru City Corporation area. The reason for more number of cases is because of better reporting mechanism, he pointed out. Karnataka as a whole recorded 14,569 cases in 2014, which was 1% of total malaria cases in India. An area of concern in the two districts is spurt in number of cases of Plasmodium Falciparum (PF) malaria, which has high chance of morbidity.

Number of PF malaria cases which was 52 in January, 2014, rose to 140 in July. Number of PF malaria cases came down to 30 in December 2014. There has been a 45% increase in number of PF Malaria cases in the Dakshina Kannada, he said. 

Blood smears test 

Health activist Suresh Shetty said private hospitals in the city are not taking blood smears of affected persons as they go in for Quantitative Buffy Coast (QBC) test for detecting the disease. In the absence of smears, department of health is not in a position to audit deaths of persons suspected to have succumbed to malaria which private hospitals report. Dr Prakash asked DHO Dr Ramakrishna Rao to instruct all private hospitals to collect blood smears while doing QBC test.

Stinging facts: Health activist Suresh Shetty said private hospitals in the city are not taking blood smears of affected persons as they go in for Quantitative Buffy Coast (QBC) test for detecting the disease. In the absence of smears, department of health is not in a position to audit deaths of persons suspected to have succumbed to malaria which private hospitals report.