Malaria is still a major global health problem, killing more than one million people every year. Almost all of these deaths are caused by Plasmodium falciparum, one of the four species of malaria parasites infecting humans. This high burden of mortality falls heavily on sub-Saharan Africa, where over 90% of these deaths are thought to occur, and 5% of children die before the age of 5 years. The death toll from malaria is still growing, with malariaspecificmortality in youngAfrican children estimated to have doubled during the last 20 years. This increase has been associated with drug resistance of the parasite, spread of insecticide-resistant mosquitoes, poverty, social and political upheaval, and lack of effective vaccines.
Failure of the host to control a malaria infection is in part related to the complexity of the parasite and the interaction with the immune system of the host. Although there is now considerably more investment in malaria research, and there are encouraging signs in vaccine development, we are a long way from understanding the nature and control of protective immunity or the pathological consequences of the host’s response to Plasmodium.With themajor advances in knowledge in basicimmunology, inflammation, and the genomic information on the host, vector and parasite, we are nowin a position to elucidate the key unknowns in the immune response to malaria clik here for download ebook (source:medicalbookforeveryone)
