WHY PARASITOLOGY WINS THE NOBEL PRIZE

Why the Malaria fascinates me

Dr.T.V.Rao MD

As a Doctor qualified in the past, our teachers taught us better

parasitology than many of us do today and parasitology was identified as a cause of great

human suffering than the Bacteria, virus and fungus in the past. When I read the

Parasitology wins the Nobel Prize the world must have woke to the realities of implications

of human suffering associated with parasites , I was very fascinated to read a quote by

Oliver Sacks In examining disease, we gain wisdom about anatomy and physiology and

biology. In examining the person with disease, we gain wisdom about life. The great

suffering of the Humans with parasitic infection teach greater wisdom to life and death

when we find helpless to save most valuable humans, Today the parasitology is neglected

and someone recognized for the great contributions. I am very happy the neglected

parasitology wins the Nobel prize, today we concentrate more on life prolongation, sciences

like Cardiology, Neurology Nephrology or any other rarely we think of a young man with

parasitic infection who is poor and suffers the consequences of disabilities death and loss of

human hours, however the matters open to many how important is parasitology still Nobel

selectors have taken a Nobel cause for the realities of human suffering with parasitic

infections. If you take Africa’s concerns many of the killers to humans continues to be

neglect and the parasites play a great havoc to kills many people. Three scientists from

Japan, China and Ireland whose discoveries led to the development of potent new drugs

against parasitic diseases including malaria and elephantiasis won the Nobel Prize for

Medicine. Irish-born William Campbell and Japan's Satoshi Omura won half of the prize for

discovering avermectin, a derivative of which has been used to treat hundreds of millions of

people with river blindness and lymphatic filariasis, or elephantiasis. China’s Youyou Tu was

awarded the other half of the prize for discovering artemisinin, a drug that has slashed

malaria deaths and has become the mainstay of fighting the disease. She is China's first

Nobel laureate in medicine. Among many diseases Malaria continues to be most interesting

as it kills the people instantaneously with manifestation of Falciparum malaria. Way back to

late 70’s and early eighties if you are on night day in any modern Hospital we are certain to

certify one or two children’s deaths in emergency hours, people are helpless and in the

process created lots of economic instability in many continents in Africa, However I was very

happy to work with supporting team who have a greater approach to Humans than what we

see in the modernized world, I have seen rebellions in the Military schools as sudden death

happens in the war fare training centres, with Falciparum malarial infection, It just means if

you are Doctor in Africa the death is more important part of profession than life we deal.

However the technicians and paramedical people are experts in tracing the least number of

parasites in the smear, our strength was a very old microscope and dedicated staff and our

determination to face life and death, It makes to think today the Nobel prize wakes up the

world for better approaches to human suffering TRADITIONAL CHINESE MEDICINE Tu,

meanwhile, turned to a traditional Chinese herbal medicine in her hunt for a better malaria

treatment, following the declining success of the older drugs chloroquine and quinine. She

found that an extract from the plant Artemisia annua was sometimes effective but the

results were inconsistent, so she went back to ancient literature, including a recipe from 350

AD, in the search for clues. This eventually led to the isolation of artemisinin, a new class of

anti-malaria drug, which was available in China before it reached the West. Tu has worked

at the China Academy of Traditional Chinese Medicine since 1965. Tu, meanwhile, turned to

a traditional Chinese herbal medicine in her hunt for a better malaria treatment, following

the declining success of the older drugs chloroquine and quinine. She found that an extract

from the plant Artemisia annua was sometimes effective but the results were inconsistent,

so she went back to ancient literature, including a recipe from AD 350, in the search for

clues. "We now have drugs that kill these parasites very early in their life-cycle. "They not

only kill these parasites but they stop these infections from spreading. “Despite rapid

progress in controlling malaria in the past decade, the disease still kills around half a million

people a year, the vast majority of them babies and young children in the poorest parts of

Africa. Death rates from malaria have plunged 60 percent in the past 15 years, although the

disease still kills around half a million people a year, the vast majority of them babies and

young children in the poorest parts of Africa. Today, the medicine ivermectin, a derivative of

avermectin made by Merck & Co, is used worldwide to fight roundworm parasites, while

artemisinin-based drugs from firms including Novartis and Sanofi are the main weapons

against malaria.

Ref Beating Parasites Wins 3 Scientists Nobel Prize for Medicine by Simon Johnson and Ben

Hirschler Medscape Infectious diseases

Dr.T.V.Rao MD Professor of Microbiology Freelance writer

A GREAT TRIBUTE TO WHO MADE IT