[CPEO-MEF] Malaria Research

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

[POSTED BY Robert S. Taylor  <RST195005@aol.com>

Here is an example of DoD environmental funds at work (the funding was
probably from DoD's Pest Management Board, which is under the DUSD for
Installations and Environment). - Robert S. Taylor

Scientists have determined the complete genetic codes of the single-cell
parasite that causes malaria and of the mosquito that transmits it to
people, a feat they said would allow them to launch a high-tech assault
on one of the world's deadliest and most intractable scourges.

Moreover, malaria's genomic unveiling has revealed a host of new
research opportunities that could inspire a much-needed shot of
international investment in the faltering global war against the
disease, researchers said. Malaria kills more than 2 million people
annually -- the vast majority of them children younger than 5 -- and has
spread in recent years as affordable drugs have lost their effectiveness
and mosquitoes have perfected their resistance to the most widely used
sprays.

Malaria ranks as one of the three leading infectious killers worldwide,
along with tuberculosis and AIDS. The disease, spread mainly by the
mosquito Anopheles gambiae, infects more than 300 million people each
year, 90 percent of them in sub-Saharan Africa.

The genome projects -- funded by several public and private
institutions, including the National Institutes of Health, the Wellcome
Trust of England, the French Ministry of Research and the U.S.
Department of Defense -- was conducted at TIGR, the Sanger Center in
England, Celera Genomics in Rockville, Genoscope in France and several
other university and research laboratories.

The full story is in the Washington Post, at
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A35539-2002Oct2.html

Robert S. Taylor

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