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Using Mosquitoes To ‘Vaccinate’ Against Malaria

Joanne Silberner,NPR

The parasite responsible for the intense fevers, chills, and headaches of malaria is very skilled at hiding in the in the body. That means vaccines don’t work all that well to prevent the disease.

So Dutch researchers are trying a new approach — “vaccinating” people by having them get bitten by mosquitoes carrying the malaria parasite, which is similar to how people get infected in the real world. And it seems that this technique may keep people safe from the disease more than two years later.

The Dutch way is different than the conventional vaccine approach of injecting people with bits and pieces of the malaria parasite, or a parasite that’s been weakened in the lab.

Those traditional approaches haven’t been working all that well in clinical trials. The Plasmodium parasite is notoriously tough to manipulate because it spends most of its time hiding inside red blood cells and liver cells, out of sight of the immune system. That’s one reason why it was able to kill 781,000 people in 2009. Most of those were children in developing countries.

In the Dutch experiment, 10 volunteers were bitten multiple times by malarious mosquitoes. The researchers then gave the volunteers an anti-malaria drug, chloroquine. (And yes, the researchers were very careful to pick a malaria type that can be vanquished by chloroquine, not a variety resistant to the drug.)

A couple of years ago, the researchers reported that this process works in the short run to protect against malaria. But that’s not such a big deal. People naturally infected by malaria build up an immunity that holds for several months.

What’s new is that the researchers went back to six of the volunteers 28 months later. Once again the volunteers allowed themselves to be bitten by malarious mosquitoes. Four of the six did not get infected. And the immune systems of the remaining two put up a fight – their infections were delayed (and quickly treated). The results were published online in The Lancet.

Wondering who would volunteer to be bitten by a malarious mosquito? Study author Robert Sauerwein of Radboud University in the Netherlands says most were university students. And the trial was designed pretty carefully.

A lot more work needs to be done to test this approach. This study was very small – only six people. And the researchers note that they may have stacked the deck a little – they used the exact same strain of malaria to infect, and to re-infect. And they worked with adults with mature immune systems, rather than children.

It’s not clear yet why the experimental vaccination protected longer than infection by mosquito in the field. The anti-malarial drug could have helped. Or maybe it was the intense exposure to multiple bites at the same time. Whatever the reason, they say, it’s worth investigating given how well the malaria parasite has been at outsmarting attempts to get rid of it.

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Ory Okolloh on Becoming an Activist

Ory Okolloh tells the story of her life and her family — and how she came to do her heroic work reporting on the doings of Kenya’s parliament

Ory Okolloh is a Kenyan activist, lawyer, and blogger. She currently holds the position of Policy Manager for Africa with Google. She also works as a legal consultant for NGOs and has worked at Covington and Burling, the Kenya National Commission on Human Rights, and the World Bank in the past.

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What Would You Do with $608,000,000.00

Imagine six 350-passenger capacity jumbo jets packet with children mission every day

About 10 days ago (that is approximately 4 weeks into the Libya war), the US Pentagon released the cost of the Libya Operation; and the figure presented to the public was $608,000,000.00, and still growing.  Please note that this was the cost of the war 10 days ago. I did accounting for a mere one year so I’m not going to attempt to extrapolate the cost today but just go ahead and your own calculation if you’re comfortable with it.

What I can at least attempt to do is estimate what else this could have accomplished for humanity, especially the continent that is hosting the war.

The Figures:

  • Estimated number of malaria deaths each day: 2740
  • Percentage of malaria deaths that are children under 5 years: 70% (equivalent to 1948 children a day)
  • For a Jumbo Jet that carries an average of 350 passengers, this is equivalent to 6 Jumbo Jets full of children disappearing each day.
  • Good quality mosquito nets on the average costs $10 or less
  • Approximately one month cost of the war to remove Gaddafi could provide around 60 million mosquito nets
  • Providing a family of 3 with one mosquito net would serve the combined population of Ghana, Ivory Coast, Burkina Faso, Togo, Liberia, Cameroon, Sierra Leone, Gabon, Angola, Congo, Zambia, and DR Congo.

This is what the cost of the war as at April 14 could have accomplished for the African continent, the economist calls it the opportunity cost.

The above figures assume that every family, including the President and the First Lady, gets a mosquito net. But do Grace and Bob Mugabe really need a mosquito net to sleep in? Definitely no.

So if we decided to focus only on the most vulnerable, then we could throw in additional countries, perhaps the entire sub-Saharan Africa could be covered.

Did you watch the news conferences from the various Presidents and Prime Ministers (Cameron, Sarkozy, and Obama) making their cases for the military intervention in Libya. It appeared genocide was imminent if they did not act immediately. It was convincing from their statements that if action was not executed as soon as possible, hundreds of people would be murdered by Gaddafi within weeks. Well, since the war started, nearly 104,000 people have died of malaria, 73,000 of them children.

Humanitarian missions really do have economic face, don’t they?

(This was provided to highlight vital issues that have been neglected and not necessarily to criticize the war or suggest a resistance to the mission)
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Committee on Molestation of Alleged Thief at University of Ghana Completes Work

Committee on molestation of alleged thief at UG completes work

Accra, April 21, GNA – The fact-finding committee established by the University of Ghana (UG) to investigate the case of molestation of an alleged thief by students of the University at the Mensah-Sarbah Hall, has completed its work.

The committee, in its report to the Dean of students and Vice Chancellor of the University, has identified some students, who were present during the molestation as seen in the video clips produced and also from credible eye-witness account.

A statement signed by Mr Joseph Maafo Budu, Registrar of the University, copied GNA on Wednesday in Accra, said the Vice Chancellor in his capacity as the chief disciplinary officer of the educational institution, has referred the case against the students to the disciplinary Committee for Students.

It said: “those persons were invited to meet with the disciplinary committee as per a writ of summon issued on Wednesday, 13, April 2011.”

The statement announced that without any prejudice to the provision of the University’s statutes, the list of persons duly identified in the report has been handed over to the Ghana Police Service for its own investigations.

It said the management of the University would like to assure the University community and the general public that it was doing everything possible to bring to book and sanction as appropriate all involved in the despicable act seen in the video.

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Naked gym in Spain to Battle Recession

A gym in Spain’s Basque region has come up with an eye-catching way of battling the recession.

It has begun offering naked workouts, for nudists.

Easy Gym in Arrigorriaga is the first of its kind in Spain, pioneering the peculiar practice of stripping while keeping fit.

“With the crisis we noticed there were fewer people using the gym,” owner Merche Laseca explained to the BBC.

“I’m not a nudist myself, though I have no problem with it. But this initiative is about the money.”

Naked enthusiasm

The gym did its research before opting to chase the nudist euro.

It discovered that two local swimming pools already offered popular monthly sessions for bathing in your birthday suit.

Every year, in nearby Sopelana, there is a mass naked run along the sands.

 “Doing sport without clothes is natural – and much more comfy”

There are at least 12 naturist beaches in the Basque region, and many more all over the Spanish coast.

“We’re always interested in new activities,” explains Maite Vicuna, president of the Basque Naturist Association, who attended a trial run of the naked gym last week.

A poll of the group’s members showed 90% support for a facility offering the full range of nude workouts.

“Doing sport without clothes is natural – and much more comfy,” Ms Vicuna argues.

Sceptics suggest that running full tilt in the buff might not be entirely enjoyable, though. Sports underwear, they point out, was invented for a reason.

But the gym owner denies her concept is impractical.

“Being a naturist doesn’t mean being daft. If a woman needs to, she can put a top on!” says Merche Laseca. “But there’s cycling, weightlifting and the Stairmaster: there’s lots you can easily do naked.”

Easy Gym stresses it does provide towels for comfort and “to prevent slippage” on the equipment.

But some sporting types are clearly unconvinced by the concept.

Continue here

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Africa: Let us not Forget Reparations

It is pertinent to draw the world’s attention to the issue of reparations for Africa once again. This much vilified issue of reparations for Africa seems to have receded to the background particularly since the death of one of its most avid supporters the late Nigerian Business Mogul MKO Abiola.

The question being asked by many informed observers is why the call for reparations for Africa? They opined that Africa is asking for too much and also seeking to be “spoon fed” without basis. They tend to draw analogies between Africa and other continents, particularly Asia with whom Africa shares similar history. They point to the fact that if the continent of Asia could set itself on the path of self discovery and economic and social development, in spite of its dearth of mineral resources, then Africa has no reason to lag behind and continue to call for reparations. They also draw the attention of the pro reparations community to the fact that most African nations have mismanaged loans and development aids granted them by Breton Woods Institutions such as the World Bank, IMF and donor agencies such as the London Club, Paris Club etc. As a matter of fact they assert that Africa is now enmeshed in the debt trap because of the foreign loan mismanagement malaise.

They also pointed out, that Africa has not been able to tap or benefit from robust economic packages like the ambitious AGOA [African Growth and Opportunities Act] signed into law by the former American President, Bill Clinton, which sought to provide leverage for African goods in the American market. The weakening of institutions of state and absence of democracy in the true sense of the word in most parts of Africa has also been fingered as one of the reasons why the quest for reparations is untenable.

The sound and forceful logic of the anti- reparations community in rejecting calls for reparations for Africa may be compelling but there is a need to expand the frontiers of the question from “why reparations?” to “what is reparation?”. Reparations may be conceptualized as compensation especially monetary, paid to countries or people who have been subjected to severe deprivations and degradations which consequently leads to a pronounced disadvantage.

The history of the African continent through several epochs and eras in world history which is well documented is replete with severe deprivations and human degradations, accompanied by so much bloodshed. This includes the slave trade, colonization, imperialism, resource exploitation, proxy wars religious inquests and so on. It may be averred that a correlation, maybe not so significant, can be drawn between these events and the present state of the African continent. Hence the call for reparations may NOT out rightly be out of order.

It is to this end, that a call for reparations is made, and such compensations should be channeled to critical areas such as the endemic scourge of malaria on the African continent, pandemic scourge of HIV/AIDS, famine in Africa, humanitarian displacement [Refuge problems] that are all still prevalent problems in the continent

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Molested Campus Woman, Amina, Contemplates Suicide

Molested campus woman, Amina

The young lady who was physically molested by some students of the University of Ghana is threatening to commit suicide.

Amina Haruna told Joy News’ Hannah Odame that she has been severely traumatized by the incident and could hardly see herself coming to terms with the disgrace and humiliation it has brought her, as well as her family and friends.

“I am feeling like killing myself. It was my grandmother who has been talking to me,” else I would have been dead by now.

About a month ago, Amina Haruna was subjected to what many human rights activists have described as inhuman treatment when some students of the Mensah Sarbah Hall, stripped her, accusing her of being a laptop and mobile phone thief.

The students filmed the molestation and distributed the videos.

Though she is on a police enquiry bail, she has vehemently denied the accusation.

“I am not a thief…I didn’t steal anything,” she stressed.

According to her, she has been doing business on the university campus selling clothes to the students – some of whom buy her wares on credit.

Narrating what happened on that fateful day, Amina said she had gone to the school for her money when a female student – who claimed to have lost a phone previously on a date Amina was there to do business – accosted and accused her of stealing the phone and before she could say jack, male students had swarmed her up and started molesting her.

Amina maintained no stolen item was found on her and that her only crime was going to hall after a student had lost a phone.

She said without giving her chance to explain herself, the guys at the Hall pounced on her, tore her dress, opened her legs and “one of the guys who was wearing shoe kicked me and my [private parts oozed] with blood”.

Recounting the effects of the ordeal on her, Amina said her fiancé, felt so ashamed that he broke up with her. “Who is going to marry me with this disgrace?” she asked, sobbing.

Meanwhile the Committee set up by the University of Ghana to investigate the incident has submitted its report to the disciplinary committee of the University for action.

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Genetically Modified Mosquitoes Offer Malaria Hope

By James Gallagher Health and Science reporter, BBC News

Scientists believe they are closer to being able to change the DNA of wild mosquitoes in order to combat malaria.

In the laboratory, they made a gene spread from a handful of mosquitoes to most of the population in just a few generations, according to a report in Nature.

If the right gene can be made to spread then researchers hope to reduce the number of cases of malaria.

Other academics have described the study as a “major step forward”.

The World Health Organisation estimated that malaria caused nearly one million deaths in 2008.

Spreading resistance

Around a million people are thought to die from malaria each year

Research groups have already created “malaria-resistant mosquitoes” using techniques such as introducing genes to disrupt the malaria parasite’s development.

The research, however, has a great challenge – getting those genes to spread from the genetically-modified mosquitoes to the vast number of wild insects across the globe.

Unless the gene gives the mosquito an advantage, the gene will likely disappear.

Scientists at Imperial College London and the University of Washington, in Seattle, believe they have found a solution.

They inserted a gene into the mosquito DNA which is very good at looking after its own interests – a homing endonuclease called I-SceI.

The gene makes an enzyme which cuts the DNA in two. The cell’s repair machinery then uses the gene as a template when repairing the cut.

As a result the homing endonuclease gene is copied.

It does this in such a way that all the sperm produced by a male mosquito carry the gene.

So all its offspring have the gene. The process is then repeated so the offspring’s offspring have the gene and so on.

In the laboratory experiments, the gene was spread to half the caged mosquitoes in 12 generations.

Defeating malaria

Professor Andrea Crisanti, from the department of life sciences at Imperial College London, said: “This is an exciting technological development, one which I hope will pave the way for solutions to many global health problems.

“At the beginning I was really quite skeptical and thought it probably would not work, but the results are so encouraging that I’m starting to change my mind.”

He said the idea had been proved in principle and was now working on getting other genes to spread in the same way.

He believes it could be possible to introduce genes which will make the mosquito target animals rather than humans, stop the parasite from multiplying in the insect or produce all male offspring which do not transmit malaria.

Professor Janet Hemingway, from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, said the work was an “exciting breakthrough”.

She cautioned that the technique was still some way off being used against wild mosquitoes and there were social issues around the acceptability of using GM technology.

“This is however a major step forward providing technology that may be used in a cost effective format to drive beneficial genes through mosquito populations from relatively small releases,” she added.

Dr Yeya Touré, from the World Health Organisation, said: “This research finding is very important for driving a foreign gene in a mosquito population. However, given that it has been demonstrated in a laboratory cage model, there is the need to conduct further studies before it could be used as a genetic control strategy