Malaria Retold
A quirky blend of science, human rights, and
international politics marks the writing of Sonia Shah, an investigative
journalist and author of several critically acclaimed prize-winning books.
Her latest book which has won rave reviews is called "The Fever: How
Malaria Has Ruled Humankind for 500,000 Years." Her new book is a
riveting read on the historical, sociological and anthropological
underpinnings of how malaria has maintained a stranglehold on civilization
down the ages. It is based on 5 years of meticulously researched evidence
round the world including far flung places like Malawi, Panama and
Cameroon. The book is peppered with colorful stories of malaria during the
construction of the Panama Canal to how malaria plagued the Popes and
poets of medieval Europe. It gives a fascinating account of the multiple
facets of malaria, from our frustrating fight with anti malarial drugs,
plasmodium’s penchant for developing resistance, genomic attacks planned
by Harvard researchers, activist attempts to rehabilitate the pariah
insecticide DDT and the motley group of private charitable organizations
working towards its eradication. Finally it is a gripping account of human
ingenuity and progress, and it’s heartbreaking limitations (The New
York Times 26 July 2010, Nature 466, 186-187; 8 July 2010).
The Story of Artemesinin
Chinese herbalists have been using artemisia which is
derived from the wormwood tree for more than a 1000 years. In 1972, a
chinese scientist, Tu Youyou isolated artemesinin from the leaves of the
Artemisia annua (annual wormwood). The drug was called Qinghaosu. It was
largely ignored by the western world for another 10 years till it was
discovered that it cleared malaria parasites from our body faster than any
other drug in history.
As resistance to other antimalarials has risen, the
demand for artemesinin has shown astronomical escalation. To solve the
problem of bulk production, scientists started toying with the idea of
artificial substitutes. In 2006, a paper in Nature described a technique
to produce artemisinic acid in genetically engineered yeast cells which
could then be converted chemically to artemesinin. The Bill and Melinda
Gates foundation gave a $ 42.6 million grant to commercialize the product
but results are yet to be seen.
While this technology was under progress, farmers in
China and Vietnam planted tens of thousands of hectares of Artemisia,
and by 2007 the market was flooded. The price of artemisinin crashed from
more than $1,100 per kilogram to around $200 per kilogram, putting some 80
processing companies — and untold numbers of farmers — out of business.
However this year with rise in food prices, the incentive to grow
artemesin is lower. The the floods in China and Vietnam may also reduce
yields.
Meanwhile in Cambridge, UK, researchers are trying a
new tack. They are producing new hybrid varieties of the plant which will
yield 3 times more drug from the leaves. Finally to handle the agonizing
fluctuations in demand and supply of artemesinin, an international
initiative called the Assured Artemisinin Supply System (A2S2) initiative,
has now been established to improve communication between farmers,
processors and drug companies (www.nature.com; 3 August 2010).