Malaria
Gene Variants - out of Africa
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| Together with Dr. Jennifer Evans, an indigenous physician examines a child infected with malaria. (Photo: BMBF/M. Väisänen) |
Ghana during the rainy season. In the area around Kumasi, a city of one million inhabitants, malaria is especially prevalent. During the rainy season mosquitoes carrying malaria are multiplying rapidly. From May to December 2002 Dr. Jennifer Evans and her collegues conducted field studies in the villages around Kumasi and examined around 450 children per week to screen them for malaria.
Altogether, they collected more than 14000 blood samples. To date, no other malaria study has been so comprehensive.
Dr. Evans and her colleagues belong to an NGFN research group at the Institute for Tropical Medicine in Hamburg which, under the direction of Professor Rolf Horstmann, is investigating the cause of malaria.
"With two million deaths and 500 million new cases diagnosed each year, malaria is one of the greatest health problems worldwide", says Professor Horstmann. Yet a vaccine is still not in the offing, and the pathogens are becoming more often resistant to the drugs currently used to treat malaria.
He and his research group are focusing on genome research. Some genetic variants that provide a certain protection against malaria are already known today.
Page 2: Why sickle-cell anemia protects against malaria. Why Professor Horstmann is searching for unknown genetic mutations.
