lecture 18 Flashcards
Malaria - background to malaria: clinical features and treatment - immunity: targets and mediators - pathogenesis of disease - immunity and immune evasion - malaria in pregnancy as an example
What are the main causes of malaria globally?
- P. vivax
- P. falciparum
Is malaria a modern pandemic?
- no
- malaria is an ancient disease
- in 400 BC, Hippocrates described the symptoms of malaria
- presence of Plasmodium DNA in the remains of King Tut (1324 BC)
- has evolved with us
Who is at greatest risk of malaria? What is the burden of malaria?
- young children and pregnant women
- up to 1 millions deaths per year
- 300 - 500 million cases per year
- a leading cause of childhood deaths globally
- malaria in pregnancy:
- low birth weight
- miscarriages and stillbirths
- impedes economic development
- impacts on learning and education
- compounds poverty
- malaria most affects resource-poor communities
What are obstacles to combating malaria ?
- no highly effective control measures available: partially effective measures, poorly applied
- no vaccine available (yet)
- drug resistance widespread and increasing
- insecticide resistance
- economic, political, and social factors
What are the Plasmodium species and the differences in disease they cause?
P. falciparum
- causes majority of severe malaria disease and death
- population at risk: 2.2 billion
P. vivax
- increasingly recognised as a cause of severe illness
- population at risk: 2.6 billion
- dormant liver stage
P. ovale and P. malariae
- limited distribution, mild disease
- proposed that P. ovale is actually two species
P. knowlesi
- zoonotic infection, can be severe
- present in macaques throughout SE asia
- human to human transmission for the first four
- if he had malaria and they filled the room with mosquitoes, no one would get it
- there’s an incubation period before they become infective
What causes the bulk of Malaria disease?
P. falciparum
What is P. falciparum transmitted by?
female Anopheles mosquitoes
Is there an animal reservoir for P. falciparum?
no
At what stage do we see malaria?
disease only during blood stage
What are the immune responses primarily against?
- blood stage parasites
- involve both humoral and cellular responses
What are the clinical features of malaria?
Uncomplicated (mild) malaria:
- ‘flu-like’ illness
- fever, headaches, malaise
- 90-95% of cases
severe malaria:
- severe anaemia
- cerebral complications (cerebral malaria)
- coma, convulsions
- long-term neurological deficits
- respiratory distress and metabolic acidosis
- reduced tissue perfusion
- lung damage
- other: hypoglycemia, kidney failure, blood clotting problems
- deathrate of 15-20%
What is the treatment of malaria?
mild malaria
- short course of effective anti-malarial tablets
- aremisinin combination therapy (ACT):
- e.g. artemether-lumefantrine (AL) (older drugs - chloroquine, sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine)
- clearance of P. vivax liver stage - primaquine
severe malaria
- anti-malarials: intavenous artemisinin or quinine (7-10 days)
- IV fluids, blood transfusion if required
- supportive treatment (intensive care)
- anticonvulsant, anticoagulant, anti-inflammatory drugs?
- little improvement in mortality rate for decades
- urgent need for new treatments
What is the epidemiology and immunity of malaria?
- immunity eventually develops after many episodes
three main types of immunity
1. immunity that prevents severe malaria
2. immunity that prevents any malaria
3. immunity to malaria in pregnancy
What are reasons for slow development of immunity?
parasite factors:
- multiple antigenic targets (~5000 genes)
- antigenic diversity: major targets show substantial polymorphism
- antigenic variation: gene families allow switching to evade responses
host factors:
- inadequate response (especially young children)
- non-functional/irrelevant responses
- poor development of memory responses?
How does the malaria illness develop?
Unrestricted replication in the blood stream
- malaria parasites accumulate in vital organs
- inflammatory responses
- destruction of red blood cells
severe illness: multi-system involvement
- coma (cerebral malaria)
- severe anaemia
- acidosis and respiratory distress