The symptoms of malaria are similar in all types of the disease, including fever, abdominal pain, and severe anemia. Malaria is caused by infection from Plasmodium parasites, such as P. falciparum and P. vivax.

A number of researches have used P. vivax or P. falciparum to discover the possibility of a vaccine. Several researches have also identified a weakness in P. vivax that can be targeted by anti-malaria medicines.

With genetic mapping of malaria parasites, the life cycle and appropriate type of the parasites can be determined in order to produce a vaccine. This will also improve the vaccine’s effectivity and its effective period in the body.

Researches conducted by various scientists also find that P. vivax genes have significant differences from the three other malaria-inducing parasites, in terms of structure, content, and complexity.

“The data will be very useful to accelerate the finding and development of a vaccine and new medicines to fight malaria,” said Dr Claire Fraser-Liggett, head of the Institute of Genomic Sciences at the University of Maryland School of Medicine.

With similar characteristics to the malaria parasite that infects human (P. falciparum), it is hoped that the genomic mapping will accelerate the finding of a malaria vaccine for human.

Text by Rezky Zakiri
Stock photos from Google Search Images

Source(s):

• Genom P. vivax Dikodekan (2015). http://www.spesialis.info/?genom-p.-vivax-dikodekan,1373, August, 2018.