News

Fish nets join mosquito nets against malaria

12 July 2010

New drugs to fight malaria may well lie at the bottom of the ocean, according to researchers studying over 2,500 samples from marine organisms collected at depths of over 900 metres. They have already found 300 that contain substances that can kill the parasite.

“So far we have a hit rate of over 10 percent,” said Debopam Chakrabarti, Professor of Molecular Biology and Microbiology at the University of Central Florida, who is leading the research.

Chakrabarti has spent over 20 years researching treatments for the mosquito-borne illness, and turned to the largely unexplored biological potential of the ocean because “[current] drugs are becoming increasingly less effective and [malaria] is still killing,” he told IRIN.

The UN World Health Organization has noted that about 3.3 billion people – half of the world’s population – are at risk of malaria, and around 1 million people worldwide are killed by it every year.

Read the full story at IrinPlus News.