Essential Medicines News

“Model Identifies Targets for Eradication of Malaria,” Physorg.com, 12 March 2008.

Researchers at the Instituto Gulbenkian de Ciência have published an article at PLoS One showing that malaria eradication is a real possibility in areas with moderate transmission. It also supports the view that mass administration of antimalarial drugs bear an important role in eradication strategies. An excerpt from the paper:

More relevant to malaria control, is the finding of bistable behaviour in regions of mesoendemic transmission, such as Foni Kansala and Sukuta. Bistability is generated by the establishment of longer infections in clinically immune individuals, in comparison to infections in those that are immunologically naïve. This asymmetry, which enhances transmission when endemicities are established, leads to the identification of conditions for sustainable malaria control.

Conditions for eradication and resurgence are simulated in a supplemental appendix.