Gene/Protein Disease Symptom Drug Enzyme Compound
Pivot Concepts:   Target Concepts:
Query: UMLS:C0024530 (malaria)
 44,886 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The 4 year war that resulted in the overthrow of Nicaragua's Somoza dictatorship cost 50,000 lives. In 1972 an earthquake killed 20,000 with 10,000 injured. Under Somoza health conditions had been worse than in neighboring countries with 35% of the urban and 95% of the rural population lacking access to potable water and only about 10% of the population receiving adequate medical care. 1/3 of the people contracted malaria at least once in their lives and 46-83% of the children were malnourished. Life expectancy at the time of the revolution was 52.9 years, infant mortality was between 120-140/1000. Since July 1979, however, about 70% of the people have regular medical care and health care education campaigns are widespread. Public health programs have administered vaccinations to thousands of children and literacy programs have incorporated elementary health principles into their curricula. However, despite these efforts malaria continued to rise from 4.4 people/1000 in 1978 to 9.4/1000 in 1980. After an antimalarial drug campaign in 1981, a 98% decline was noted in new cases of malaria. Poliomyelitis and tuberculosis prevention campaigns are likewise effective and oral rehydration centers have been set up to combat infant diarrhea. Having recently experienced a baby boom, a campaign to disseminate family planning information is being planned. Technical and professional health training has been expanded as well with a second medical school opening in Managua in 1981 along with growth in the amount of nursing school students. International aid has been crucial in health care with more than 24 countries sending medical supplies and personnel. Lack of equipment and facilities is holding back medical advances and there is a dilemma concerning physicians' time spent at public versus their private practices. Drugs remain the largest health import for the country even though their pharmaceutical manufacturers have increased production. 5 new hospitals are being built with the government's health expenditures rising from 6 to 17% of the national budget. In just 3 years more has been done in most areas of social welfare than in the 50 years of Somoza dictatorship and these efforts indicate a profound change in Nicaraguan society.
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PMID:Developments in health care in Nicaragua. 708 11

Without a medical miracle, it seems inevitable that the Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) pandemic will become not only the most serious public health problem of this generation but a dominating issue in 3rd world development. As a present-day killer, AIDS in developing countries is insignificant compared to malaria, tuberculosis, or infant diarrhea, but this number is misleading in 3 ways. First, it fails to reflect the per capita rate of AIDS cases. On this basis, Bermuda, French Guyana, and the Bahamas have much higher rates than the US. Second, there is extensive underreporting of AIDS cases in most developing nations. Finally, the number of AIDS cases indicates where the epidemic was 5-7 years ago, when these people became infected. Any such projections of the growth of 3rd world AIDS epidemics are at this time based on epidemiologic data from the industrialized rations of the north and on the assumption that the virus acts similarly in the south as it does in the US and Europe. Yet, 3rd world conditions differ. Sexually transmitted diseases usually are more prevalent, and people have a different burden of other diseases and of other stresses to the immune system. In Africa, AIDS already is heavily affecting the mainstream population in some nations. Some regions will approach net population declines over the next decade. How far their populations eventually could decline because of AIDS is unclear and will depend crucially on countermeasures taken or not taken over the next 1-2 years. In purely economic terms, AIDS will affect the direct costs of health care, expenses which are unrealistic for most 3rd world countries. Further, the vast majority of deaths from AIDS in developing countries will occur among those in the sexually active age groups -- the wage earners and food producers. Deaths in this age group also will reduce the labor available for farming and industry. AIDS epidemics also may have significant effects on foreign investment in the 3rd world as well as negative effects on tourism. The global underclass will be disproportionately affected by AIDS as the blacks and Hispanics already are in New York and Miami. Thus far, the reaction of donor countries to the World Health Organization's (WHO) appeal for funds to fight the battle against AIDS has been excellent. The global strategy of WHO places priority on national campaigns, but none of the national campaigns will be effective unless linked to similar actions in other nations to form a vigorous international program. The US has a special responsibility to provide international leadership on AIDS. The US is the world leader in AIDS research and has the bulk of the virus research capacity. Further, no country can come close to matching US experience in dealing with AIDS through "safe sex" education campaigns.
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PMID:AIDS in the developing countries. 1028 33

The project for the struggle against childhood diseases began in Rwanda in 1984. Lack of birth spacing, malnutrition, unhealthy environments and infectious diseases sicken and kill children in all of Africa, and many may be alleviated by simple measures. The project focuses on diarrhea and malaria, attempting to reduce mortality by 25%, administering chloroquine to children with fever and pregnant mothers for malaria, and oral rehydration therapy (ORT) for diarrhea. Goals are breastfeeding and gradual weaning being as universal as possible, and proper alimentation for sufferers of infant diarrhea. ORT is expected to be administered by the mother herself, and should reduce the 60% to 70% of diarrhea deaths caused by dehydration. Measles, whooping cough, neonatal tetanus, polio, diphtheria, and tuberculosis among children will be the targets of innoculation campaigns. All of the diseases are major child killers in Africa; measles are responsible for an estimated 31.3% of child deaths from 1 to 4, 10.3% in the 1st year of life. Community oriented primary care of the type necessary to execute these programs is not presently a priority among medical personnel; it should become an important component of medical education. Education to counter ignorance and the designation of the family as the primary instrument of good health will assure child survival and eliminate the need for multiple births to maintain the family.
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PMID:[Program to combat communicable diseases in children]. 1234 Mar 78

Up to 15 years ago, when asked to identify the major public health problems of Brazil, there would be no hesitation in naming infant diarrhoea, Chagas disease and Schistosoma mansoni. While most field workers have now eliminated schistosomiasis from the list, now certainly headed by malaria, in academic and bureaucratic circles the old priorities are still maintained.
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PMID:Schistosomiasis in Brazil: Does social development suffice? 1546 66

We provide the first comprehensive analysis of any transcription factor family in Cryptosporidium, a basal-branching apicomplexan that is the second leading cause of infant diarrhea globally. AP2 domain-containing proteins have evolved to be the major regulatory family in the phylum to the exclusion of canonical regulators. We show that apicomplexan and perkinsid AP2 domains cluster distinctly from other chromalveolate AP2s. Protein-binding specificity assays of C. parvum AP2 domains combined with motif conservation upstream of co-regulated gene clusters allowed the construction of putative AP2 regulons across the in vitro life cycle. Orthologous Apicomplexan AP2 (ApiAP2) expression has been rearranged relative to the malaria parasite P. falciparum, suggesting ApiAP2 network rewiring during evolution. C. hominis orthologs of putative C. parvum ApiAP2 proteins and target genes show greater than average variation. C. parvum AP2 domains display reduced binding diversity relative to P. falciparum, with multiple domains binding the 5'-TGCAT-3', 5'-CACACA-3' and G-box motifs (5'-G[T/C]GGGG-3'). Many overrepresented motifs in C. parvum upstream regions are not AP2 binding motifs. We propose that C. parvum is less reliant on ApiAP2 regulators in part because it utilizes E2F/DP1 transcription factors. C. parvum may provide clues to the ancestral state of apicomplexan transcriptional regulation, pre-AP2 domination.
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PMID:The Cryptosporidium parvum ApiAP2 gene family: insights into the evolution of apicomplexan AP2 regulatory systems. 2495 99