Malaria: Have we Won the Biowar?

ABSTRACT Despite more than 100 years of research since the discovery of malaria parasite in human blood, it still remains one of the most common vector-borne diseases widespread in tropical and subtropical regions and constituting a major global health problem. This deadly parasitic disease is caused by the plasmodial parasite species which is vectored by female Anopheles mosquito and can be transmitted to people of all ages. From Quinine to Artemisinin Combination Therapy (ACT), antimalarial treatments have saved many lives, but the parasite have always found ways to adapt, thrive and threaten more people with increasing resistance to antimalarial drugs and insecticides contributed by reduced effectiveness of the malaria control approaches developed in the eradication era. With critical advances made in areas of prevention, detection, prognosis and cure of this disease, elimination is still hampered by incomplete understanding of the complex nature of this disease which makes it necessary to develop new effective control methods. This study focuses on the on-going research which are geared towards biological approaches for the discovery and identification of new targets of intervention that will help garner sufficient data for more coordinated attack against the vector as well as the parasite.