D. Ocampo
The application of evolutionary medicine principles for sustainable malaria control: a scoping study
Ocampo, D.; Booth, M.
Authors
M. Booth
Abstract
Background Current interventions against malaria have significantly reduced the number of people infected and the number of deaths. Concerns about emerging resistance of both mosquitoes and parasites to intervention have been raised, and questions remain about how best to generate wider knowledge of the underlying evolutionary processes. The pedagogical and research principles of evolutionary medicine may provide an answer to this problem. Methods Eight programme managers and five academic researchers were interviewed by telephone or videoconference to elicit their first-hand views and experiences of malaria control given that evolution is a constant threat to sustainable control. Interviewees were asked about their views on the relationship between practit groups and academics and for their thoughts on whether or not evolutionary medicine may provide a solution to reported tensions. Results There was broad agreement that evolution of both parasites and vectors presents an obstacle to sustainable control. It was also widely agreed that through more efficient monitoring, evolution could be widely monitored. Interviewees also expressed the view that even well planned interventions may fail if the evolutionary biology of the disease is not considered, potentially making current tools redundant. Conclusions This scoping study suggests that it is important to make research, including evolutionary principles, available and easily applicable for programme managers and key decision-makers, including donors and politicians. The main conclusion is that sharing knowledge through the educational and research processes embedded within evolutionary medicine has potential to relieve tensions and facilitate sustainable control of malaria and other parasitic infections.
Citation
Ocampo, D., & Booth, M. (2016). The application of evolutionary medicine principles for sustainable malaria control: a scoping study. Malaria Journal, 15(1), Article 383. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-016-1446-8
Journal Article Type | Article |
---|---|
Acceptance Date | Jul 18, 2016 |
Online Publication Date | Jul 22, 2016 |
Publication Date | Jul 22, 2016 |
Deposit Date | Aug 15, 2016 |
Publicly Available Date | Aug 15, 2016 |
Journal | Malaria Journal |
Publisher | BioMed Central |
Peer Reviewed | Peer Reviewed |
Volume | 15 |
Issue | 1 |
Article Number | 383 |
DOI | https://doi.org/10.1186/s12936-016-1446-8 |
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Copyright Statement
© 2016 The Author(s). This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,
provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license,
and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http://creativecommons.org/
publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.
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