Herman 1
GARY HERMAN
January 8, 2019
Ms Beth Ritter-Guth
Lehigh Carbon Community College
4525 Education Park Drive
LR 305D
Schnecksville, Pa 18078
Dear Ms Ritter-Guth:
Enclosed with this letter is my report on how Open Source Science has affected the search for a cure for the malaria disease. This report is entitled The Malaria Disease and the Search for a Cure. This summary, which was requested as a class assignment, is from the research I have done and leads me to believe that Open Source Science could help bring about a possible cure for this disease.
I recommend that Open Source Science should be used as an alternative method for researching and developing a cure for the malaria disease. Through the cooperation of many disciplines, we may be able to produce a viable cure that could be produced at a cost of just a few cents per person. This online collaboration is a fairly new concept and will take time for more scholars to become aware of its existence and to get involved with. If we do not help stop it now in their countries we may end up having to fight it in our country again.
I hope this report proves to be helpful by suggesting alternatives to fighting this disease. If you would like to contact me about this report please contact me at 610-509-5356 or through my email at .
Sincerely,
Gary J Herman
Enclosure: Final Report
The Malaria Disease and the Search for a Cure
Written by
Gary Herman
January 8, 2019
Prepared for
Beth Ritter-Guth
Technical Writing - ENG-107
Lehigh Carbon Community College
TABLE OF CONTENTS
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 3
ABSTRACT 4
INTRODUCTION 5
Background 5
History of Malaria 5
What is Malaria? 6
Impact of Malaria 6
Area of Impact 6
Open Source Science Defined 7
Opposite of OSS 8
Problem 8
Purpose Statement 8
Scope of this Report 9
DISCUSSION 9
Factor that Effect Malaria Transmission 9
Factors we cannot change-Climate 9
Factors we can change 9
Barriers to Controlling Malaria 10
OSS and its effect on Malaria Control 10
CONCLUSION 11
RECOMMENDATION 11
REFERENCES 12
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1: Distribution of Malaria 7
Abstract
Malaria is a disease that has been affecting human societies for thousands of years. Even though many countries have effectively eradicated this disease, we are still being affected by it. In the poorest nations of this world malaria runs unchecked due to that nation’s inability to fight this disease because of lack of funds and lack of knowledge. Through Open Source Science, the collaboration of many scientists may be able to develop a cure that is inexpensive and effective to help these countries eradicate this disease. By opening research to everyone, we eliminate a lot of the cost and time by eliminating repeated experiments. This may be an alternative, but there are obstacles that need to be addressed.
Introduction
Background
Throughout human history, there have been many diseases that have threatened mankind’s existence. One of these diseases is Malaria. Nature, through the use of parasites and mosquitoes, has produced a disease that has been destroying human societies throughout history and is still affecting our very existence today.
With the technology we have today, it is hard to believe that this disease has not been eradicated completely, but it has not been. Faced with an increasing number of areas that may be affected by this disease, we need to take action, since in most areas now affected the people and their government do not have the monetary ability to control the problem on their own.
History of malaria
Malaria has been documented, throughout history, as a destroyer of many societies. According to the Center for Disease Control (CDC), the malaria disease has been in existence for at least 4000 years (CDC, 2004c). Symptoms of Malaria were described in ancient Chinese writing dating back to 2700 BC. Malaria was responsible for the decline in population in Greece by the 4th century BCE (CDC, 2004c).
On November 6, 1880, Charles Louis Alphonse Laveran, a French army surgeon stationed in Constantine Algeria, was the first to discover that patients with malaria had parasites in their blood. He received the Nobel Prize in 1907 for this discovery. In 1886 Camillo Golgi, and Italian neurophysiologist, discovered that there was more than one form of the disease. He received the Nobel Prize in 1906. In 1890, two Italian investigators, Giovanni Batista Grassi and Raimondo Filetti, introduced the names Plasmodium vivax and P. malariae, and then in 1897 an American, William H Welch, named the malignant malaria parasite, P. falciparum. August 20th of 1897, Ronald Ross showed that malaria parasites could be transferred from human to mosquitoes and also from birds to birds. R. Ross received the Nobel Prize in 1902 for solving the problem of the transmission of the parasite. In 1922, John W. W. Stephens named the fourth, P. ovale (CDC, 2004c).
Early treatments of malaria were products made from the Qinghao plant and the Peruvian bark. The Qinghao plant was described in a Chinese medical treatise during the second century BCE. The active ingredient is now known as artemisinin. The medicine from the Peruvian bark is known as quinine (CDC, 2004c). .
Since these discoveries, there have been numerous periods, when by controlling the insect breeding sites malaria had been brought under control. During the years from 1947 to 1951, the United States undertook the eradication of malaria through the National Malaria Eradication Program, and by 1951, it was considered eradicated from this country (CDC, 2004c).
What is Malaria?
Malaria is not caused by a virus, but is caused by parasites. “Malaria parasites are microorganisms that belong to the genus Plasmodium. There are more than 100 species of Plasmodium, which can infect many animal species such as reptiles, birds, and various mammals. Only four species of Plasmodium infect humans in nature.” (CDC, 2004e). The malaria parasite can only be spread, from person to person, by a mosquito bite. There is only one type of mosquito that can host this parasite and allow it to mature; that type is a female Anopheles mosquito (CDC, 2004a). This parasite needs to be picked up from an infected person, allowed to reproduce in the gut of the host mosquito, and then be transferred back to another person. There are four types of parasites that can cause varying degrees of sickness:
1)Plasmodium falciparum
2)Plasmodium vivax
3)Plasmodium malariae
4)Plasmodium ovale
Of these four parasites, the first type, Plasmodium falciparum, causes the most serious illness and is often fatal because it multiplies rapidly and can clog small blood vessels, which can cause brain damage and death (CDC, 2004e). The other three types usually only cause illness for generally 10-14 days and are rarely fatal.
Impact of Malaria
As stated by the Malaria Foundation International (MFI), “In any given year six to nine percent of the global population [300 – 500 million cases annually] will suffer a case of malaria.” Ninety percent of these cases are reported in Africa. Out of this large number most will survive, but roughly 2.7 million die each year. According to the CDC, they announced that in 1995, an estimated 990,000 persons died in Africa due to Malaria (2004d). Of those numbers, most are young children who have not built up any immunity yet and pregnant women whose immune systems are reduced during pregnancy. This number breaks down to about two deaths every minute.
The area most affected in Africa is located south of the Sahara Desert. Because of the large rural areas, and the lack of money, knowledge, and good healthcare, this area is highly vulnerable to diseases. As a result of these factors, 80% of malaria cases are treated at home and kills one child in twenty before the age of five (MFI, 2003). Some experts foresee a possible 20% annual increase in this area of malaria-related illnesses and death (MFI, 2005b).
Area of Impact
As can be seen at the top of the next page in figure 1, Geographic Distribution of Malaria, malaria will usually only occur in the tropical and subtropical regions of the world. Anopheles mosquitoes can survive in these areas because of the hotter temperatures, higher humidity and increased rainfall. As long as temperatures do not drop below 20 degree C (68 degree F), these parasites can complete their growth cycle in the gut of the host mosquito (CDC, 2004a). Of the 2.7 million deaths each year, 90% occur in Africa south of the Sahara Desert (MFI, 2005a).
In most cases, malaria transmission can only occur in areas where the altitude is below 1000 meters (3280 feet), but due to human migration, increase in travel, political indifference and creation of wars, many of these limits are gradually changing to areas where this disease had not been a problem or had been eradicated (MFI, 2005a).
Geographic Distribution of MalariaFigure 1
Source: (CDC, 2004b)
Due to the lack of monetary ability, knowledge, and rural areas hard to access, the governments of these regions are ill equipped and too poor to deal with this disease properly and effectively.
Open Source Science Defined
Open Source Science is a combination of other concepts that have been used for many years. Open Access (OA) is the freedom to read, use, and redistribute published results of scholarly research and works based on these publications. This refers to the use and sharing of primary data produced by scientist to reproduce and further develop. OA implies that this literature is digital, online, free of charge and free of most copyrights or licensing restrictions (Suber, 2006). The next concept is Open Source (OS). This refers to the publication of data for free use and distribution. This includes both the process of development and the resulting data. By combining both of these concepts, the result is Open Source Science (OSS), which refers to the sharing of all data, both failed and successful results, and is free to replicate and prove by others. Jean-Claude Bradley would rather rename OSS Open Notebook Science to help eliminate some confusion over the definition of OSS (Bradley, 2006). This confusion has to do with OS which many feel deal with software and the free distribution of software source codes.
OSS therefore becomes the collaboration of scientist, mathematicians and engineers sharing freely any and all data developed during the research and development of solutions to current problems. This can virtually be in any field of study. While the ultimate solution or cure may be beneficial to many, personal recognition is impossible due to many people working on the problem. This prevents any one person from getting any patents on a process because of not being the sole developer. There is also a lack of funding mainly because there is little or no return on any investment of capital since the projects are normally low profit/margin type diseases. These problems and many others need to be worked out.
Open Source Science could become a viable alternative to the traditional type of research and development. By many scholars working on a project and sharing all research freely, this may spark additional development in the same or new directions ultimately speeding up development of cures or solutions to current problems.
Opposite of OSS
The opposite of OSS would be Commercial Science. This is knowledge that is kept private as when there is a large demand for the final project. Keeping knowledge private helps produce funding for additional research or provide monetary or status incentives for the developer. This research is usually published in journals controlled by the corporation that the product is being developed for. Unfortunately, many of these publications, produced by these scholars, are not read by anyone except for the small circle who has access to these privately held journals in the corporation (Open Source vs. Commercial Software and Science, 2005).
This is the way business works. By using the profits from previous developed projects that are protected by copyrights, patents, and licenses, there is funding provided to finance research on new products.
Problem
Many countries have taken action against the disease of malaria and managed to eradicate it from their borders, but the disease is still thriving in large areas of the world, and is having devastating effects on societies in these areas. Even though this disease is treatable and preventable, these resources have not been available to everyone.
Purpose Statement
The purpose of this report is to support that Open Source Science may be a viable alternative to help fight this deadly disease in developing countries. This alternative path of research and development needs to be pursued in order to, maybe one day, develop a cure that may be affordable and available to all areas of the world including the poorest areas as in Africa.
Scope of this Report
This report can only deal with information available through online research and scholar interviews. We are trying to define the concept of Open Source Science, and how it could impact the development of a cure for malaria. This report will try to show the impact of the disease on large regions throughout the tropical and subtropical areas around the globe.
Discussion
Factor that Effect Malaria Transmission
Factors we cannot change - Climate
Climate can effect both the survival of Anopheles eggs at breeding sites and also the activities of humans. Increased rainfall can allow collection of rainwater to collect long enough to allow the eggs to develop into adulthood, but too much rain can wash away and destroy these eggs and too little can also destroy them. Once adult mosquitoes emerge, the temperature, humidity and rains will determine the survival. Climate change can also effect people’s decisions to spend more time or sleep outdoors without protection against mosquito bites.
Ultimately, there is little that can be done to change the climate conditions of these regions; therefore, we cannot affect a change to this problem through climate change.
Factors we can change
Malaria has been controlled and eradicated in most countries through three main avenues of action. These three items are (CDC, 2006a):
1)Case Management, which deals with proper diagnosis and treatment of patients with malaria.
2)Prevention of disease by administering anti-malarial drugs.
3)Vector Control uses insecticide treated bed nets, indoor insecticide spraying and the source reduction, such as destroying their habitat through chemical spraying or fogging.
Of the three areas of intervention, two affect humans by helping to build immunity or combat the disease once infected. Neither one prevents humans from being bitten. One of the most effective antimalarial drugs is Quinine. This is made from the bark of a tree known as the Peruvian, which is now known as the Cinchona tree (CDC, 2004c).
Recent treatments, that have shown nearly 100% effective results, are using combinations of artemisinin-based drugs and other antimalarials to prolong each drug’s effectiveness and delay resistance. Artemisinin is an antimalarial drug derived from the wormwood plant, which is found in Asia and Africa. To produce this drug is very time consuming and labor intensive (IfOWH, 2007). Through a $42.6 million grant from Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to the Institute for OneWorld Health, the first non-profit pharmaceutical company in the United States, OneWorld Health will work with the University of California, Berkeley to develop a process to produce a bioequivalence artemisinin derivative to the drugs natural form. Upon development, Amyris Biotechnologies will produce this drug at cost. Through this cooperation, OneWorld Health hopes to bring the current cost of this drug of $2.40 per adult to just pennies per person (Amyris, 2006).
Vector control is the one way we have to help prevent the transmission by eliminating and destroying the larva at their breeding sites or spraying the homes. These actions were very effective during the 1940’s and 1950’s, when the United States and other countries in Europe undertook these actions to eradicate malaria. This stage also deals with any action that disrupts the parasite’s growth cycles. Ultimately, both of these methods may have reduced effects due to insecticide resistance by the mosquitoes (CDC, 2006b).
Currently a chloroquine salt is used to combat this disease, but is showing signs of ineffectiveness due to some countries overuse, which allowed the parasites to grow resistant to it (MFI, 2005a).
Barriers to Controlling Malaria
Along with resistance to insecticides, you also have resistance to antimalarial drugs. When this happens, fighting the disease usually requires more costly drugs. Combine this with an inadequate health infrastructure in these poor countries, lack of education and lack of financial means to purchase drugs or other protective products; these factors make controlling malaria difficult and why new drugs or methods need to be developed (CDC, 2006a).
OSS and its effect on Malaria Control
Even though the concept of OSS and its collaboration of many scientists, engineers, mathematicians and anyone with a desire to help may one day develop a cure to stop malaria, there are many barriers to overcome before this process is more of the normal way and not just the exception.