Fighting malaria with ivermectin: a novel malaria control tool

Geospatial modelling of lymphatic filariasis and malaria co-endemicity in Nigeria

BACKGROUND

Lymphatic filariasis (LF) and malaria are important vector-borne diseases that are co-endemic throughout Nigeria. These infections are transmitted by the same mosquito vector species in Nigeria and their transmission is similarly influenced by climate and sociodemographic factors. The goal of this study was to assess the relationship between the geospatial distribution of both infections in Nigeria to better coordinate interventions.

METHODS

We used national survey data for malaria from the Demographic and Health Survey dataset and site-level LF mapping data from the Nigeria Lymphatic Filariasis Control Programme together with a suite of predictive climate and sociodemographic factors to build geospatial machine learning models. These models were then used to produce continuous gridded maps of both infections throughout Nigeria.

RESULTS

The R2 values for the LF and malaria models were 0.68 and 0.59, respectively. Also, the correlation between pairs of observed and predicted values for LF and malaria models were 0.69 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.61 to 0.79; p<0.001) and 0.61 (95% CI 0.52 to 0.71; p<0.001), respectively. However, we observed a very weak positive correlation between overall overlap of LF and malaria distribution in Nigeria.

CONCLUSIONS

The reasons for this counterintuitive relationship are unclear. Differences in transmission dynamics of these parasites and vector competence may contribute to differences in the distribution of these co-endemic diseases.

Malaria and tuberculosis as diseases of neglected populations: state of the art in chemotherapy and advances in the search for new drugs

Malaria and tuberculosis are no longer considered to be neglected diseases by the World Health Organization. However, both are huge challenges and public health problems in the world, which affect poor people, today referred to as neglected populations. In addition, malaria and tuberculosis present the same difficulties regarding the treatment, such as toxicity and the microbial resistance. The increase of Plasmodium resistance to the available drugs along with the insurgence of multidrug- and particularly tuberculosis drug-resistant strains are enough to justify efforts towards the development of novel medicines for both diseases. This literature review provides an overview of the state of the art of antimalarial and antituberculosis chemotherapies, emphasising novel drugs introduced in the pharmaceutical market and the advances in research of new candidates for these diseases, and including some aspects of their mechanism/sites of action.