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Query: UMLS:C0024530 (malaria)
 44,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

Malaria at an elevation of 1500 meters is uncommon and is usually unstable when it occurs. To confirm reports of a recent increase in the transmission of stable malaria in the Oksibil Valley, at an elevation of 1250-1500 meters in the Jayawijaya Mountains of Irian Jaya, Indonesia, 5 malariometric surveys were conducted in 4 villages between May 1990 and July 1991. A total of 3380 blood smears from 1949 people was examined. Prevalence rates over the survey period were consistent in each of the 4 villages,with averages of 10% for infants, 50% for children 1-4 years old, 35% for those 5-9 years old, 28% for those 10-14 years old, and 16% for adults (over 15 years of age). The spleen rate for those less than 5 years old was 96%, with an average enlarged spleen score of 2.32. Plasmodium falciparum accounted for 55% of the infections in the valley, but P. vivax was the predominant species in those less than 10 years old. In the village of Kutdol, at an elevation of 1500 meters, P. Malariae was identified in 43% of the positive smears. 4 cases were diagnosed as P. ovale. Infection with P. falciparum without obvious clinical symptoms was common in both adults and children. Entomologic and epidemiologic data suggested that the recent upsurge in transmission coincided with the replacement of traditional village huts with more modern social housing. This replacement required the extensive construction of drainage ditches, which inadvertently also served as additional vector breeding sites. The authors suspect that this manipulation of the environment, while attempting to improve the quality of life, created conditions which were conducive for the increased transmission of stable malaria.
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PMID:Heightened transmission of stable malaria in an isolated population in the highlands of Irian Jaya, Indonesia. 152 48

The profound influence that the genetic makeup of the host has on resistance to malaria infection has been established in numerous animal studies. This genetic heterogeneity is one of the main causes of the difficulties in developing an effective malaria vaccine. Segregation analysis is the first step in identifying the nature of genetic factors involved in the expression of human complex diseases, as infectious diseases. To assess the role of host genes in human malaria, we performed segregation analysis of blood parasite densities in 42 Cameroonian families by using both the unified mixed model and the class D regressive model of analysis. The results provide clear evidence for the presence of a recessive major gene controlling the degree of infection in human malaria. Parameter estimates show a frequency of .44-.48 for the deleterious allele, indicating that about 21% of the population is predisposed to high levels of infection.
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PMID:Segregation analysis detects a major gene controlling blood infection levels in human malaria. 159 11

Mortality trends of missionary staff serving in sub-Saharan Africa were tracked for the period 1945-1985. For 1945-1970, when more complete incidence data were available, the missionary death rate was approximately 40% lower, after adjustment, than would be expected in a comparable US population. This trend persisted through 1985. Between 1945 and 1970, the largest number of fatalities was attributable to malignancy, atherosclerosis, accidents, and infectious disease, and the greatest mortality risks, compared with the US experience, were from homicides, the complications of pregnancy, and infections, notably malaria, hepatitis, and polio. Beginning in the late 1950s, motor vehicle accidents became the leading cause of death. Since the 1960s, accidental causes of death have been approximately 50% higher than in the US, and homicides have been four times higher. During this same period, the infectious disease death rate decreased to approximately that within the US. Currently, the leading causes of mortality are motor vehicle accidents, malignancy, and atherosclerosis, followed by other accidental causes, notably aircraft mishaps and drownings. Viral hepatitis is presently the leading infectious disease cause of death. Other contemporary lethal infections include malaria, rabies, typhoid, Lassa fever, and retroviral infection. It was concluded that missionaries in sub-Saharan Africa had a death rate approximately half that expected in a comparable domestic control population. Preventive strategies, particularly relative to accident and infectious disease prevention, could effectively reduce mortality risk further.
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PMID:Mortality trends of American missionaries in Africa, 1945-1985. 162 93

Malaria is one of the most prevalent infectious diseases worldwide; it is transmitted in over 100 countries, and it is a major cause of serious morbidity and mortality in travelers. Clinicians should inform travelers of their risk, teach them the principles of personal protection, and offer individualized chemoprophylaxis regimens. The increasing prevalence of multiple drug-resistant Plasmodium falciparum in many parts of the world makes nonpharmacologic methods of malaria prevention important.
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PMID:Prevention of malaria. 162 79

We show here an effective and novel approach to engineer peptide-based vaccines using a chemically defined system, known as multiple peptide antigen systems (MAPs), to protect an inbred mouse strain from infection against rodent malaria. 10 mono- and di-epitope MAP models containing different arrangements and stoichiometry of functional B and/or T helper cell epitopes from the circumsporozoite protein of Plasmodium berghei were used to immunize A/J mice. While these mice did not respond to the mono-epitope MAP bearing only the B or T epitope, very high titers of antibody and protective immunity against sporozoite challenge were elicited by di-epitope MAPs, particularly those with the B and T epitopes in tandem and present in equimolar amounts. These results, obtained in a well-defined rodent malaria model, indicate that MAPs may overcome some of the difficulties in the development of synthetic vaccines, not only for malaria but also for other infectious diseases.
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PMID:Incorporation of T and B epitopes of the circumsporozoite protein in a chemically defined synthetic vaccine against malaria. 168 9

We have studied the proliferative and helper T cell responses in mice to a malaria sporozoite vaccine candidate currently undergoing human trials. Following immunization of B10 (I-Ab) mice with the purified recombinant baculovirus-expressed Plasmodium falciparum circumsporozoite protein, draining lymph node cells were challenged in vitro with a series of overlapping synthetic peptides which span the construct. Surprisingly, only a single peptide from the protein was immunodominant in that it could reproducibly elicit a significant proliferative response from the immunized lymph node cells. This epitope, (NANP)n, is also the repetitive immunodominant B cell epitope of the protein. However, immunization of mice with synthetic peptides revealed at least 3 cryptic proliferative epitopes--epitopes not revealed by protein immunization--two of which represent conserved regions of the protein. While cryptic peptide-immunization did not elicit protein-specific proliferative T cells, it did reveal protein-specific helper T cells, as shown by an in vivo assay. Identification of "cryptic" epitopes not only for malaria but for other infectious diseases may aid vaccine design, especially in situations where subunit vaccines are sought.
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PMID:Peptide immunization can elicit malaria protein-specific memory helper but not proliferative T cells. 172 15

Glucocorticosteroids are the most commonly used immunosuppressive agents. In the following review important mechanisms of action of glucocorticoids on the immunological network are summarized, the relationship between duration of therapy, daily dose and incidence of infections is analysed, and evidence is presented that in some infectious diseases glucocorticoids may even be beneficial. The association between corticosteroid therapy and subsequent infections was calculated by pooling the data from 73 controlled clinical trials (meta-analysis). The rate of infectious complications was not increased in patients given a daily dose of less than 10 mg or a cumulative dose of less than 700 mg prednisone. With increasing doses the occurrence rate of infectious complications increased in patients given corticosteroids as well as in patients given placebo, a finding which suggests that not only the corticosteroid but also the underlying disease state accounts for the steroid-associated infectious complications observed in clinical practice. To analyze the effect of glucocorticoids prescribed as adjuvants in patients with infectious diseases, an analysis of the controlled trials was performed. Some patients with pulmonary tuberculosis or constrictive pericarditis have a better outcome when they are given prednisone. On the other hand, there is no evidence that patients with septic shock or ARDS derive advantage from glucocorticoid therapy. At present there is controversy as to whether patients with bacterial meningitis should be treated with glucocorticosteroids. Patients with hepatitis B should not be treated with glucocorticoids, whereas elderly patients less frequently show postherpetic neuralgia when given glucocorticosteroids. Patients with cerebral malaria should not be given glucocorticosteroids. Aids patients with pneumocystis carinii pneumonia have a higher survival rate when treated with glucocorticosteroids than with placebo.
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PMID:[Glucocorticoids and infection]. 173 19

Malaria is the most widely spread infectious disease of man affecting almost half of the world's population. Control of malaria remains one of the world's biggest health challenges. Development of vaccines has been considered a valid and necessary complement to control malaria in addition to the control measures of the vectors. The Plasmodium parasites that cause the disease have many stages in their cycle, each with distinct morphology and antigenicity. Understanding the activation, interaction and effector function of the different components of the immune system in relation to target antigens on different stages of malaria parasites is necessary to achieve complete protection by vaccination.
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PMID:Host immune response to Plasmodium. 182 58

The aim of this paper is to examine historically the alternative between control and eradication of the infectious diseases, starting with the idea of eradication itself, a result of the Pasteurian revolution. The eradication of malaria in Italy is taken as a case study. Through an extensive use of the archival sources, the alternative between control and eradication is analysed for the first years of the Sardinian Project, directed by the Rockefeller Foundation, that resulted in the eradication of malaria in Sardinia. This program is compared with the different program, grounded in the Italian malariological tradition, that in the same years carried out the eradication of malaria in the rest of Italy.
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PMID:[The antimalaria campaign in Italy between control and eradication: the Sardinian experiment]. 184 Nov 91

Because of the central role of major histocompatibility complex (MHC) genes in immune recognition, it is often assumed that parasite-driven selection maintains the unprecendented genetic diversity of these genes. But associations between MHC genotype and specific infectious diseases have been difficult to identify with a few exceptions such as Marek's disease and malaria. Alternatively, MHC-related reproductive mechanisms such as selective abortion and mating preferences could be responsible for the diversity. To determine both the nature and strength of selection operating on MHC genes by we have studied components of selection in seminatural populations of mice (Mus musculus domesticus). Here we assess MHC-related patterns of reproduction and early (preweaning) mortality by analysing 1,139 progeny born in nine populations, and 662 progeny from laboratory matings. Reproductive mechanisms, primarily mating preferences, result in 27% fewer MHC-homozygous offspring than expected from random mating. MHC genotype had no detectable influence on neonatal (preweaning) mortality. These mating preferences are strong enough to account for most of the MHC genetic diversity found in natural populations of Mus.
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PMID:Mating patterns in seminatural populations of mice influenced by MHC genotype. 186 19


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