Sep 5, 2020
Dr. Fong Mun Yik has spent the
past 10 years working on a malarial parasite that has started
infecting humans—the monkey malarial parasite
Plasmodium
knowlesi.
He explains
Dr. Fong Mun Yik is a professor
in the Department of Parasitology under the Faculty of Medicine at
the University of Malaya. He's been working with this parasite that
was previously only prevalent in a few species of monkeys as its
reservoir host; however, occasions where humans have been infected
have been on the rise in the last decade or so.
Still transmitted by mosquito, as is the case with all malarial
types of parasitic diseases, this cross-infection with monkeys is
most likely due to the increased proximity of humans and the
long-tailed macaque monkey species in Malaysia.
He explains that this monkey
malaria, for the past 100 years, has been considered to only infect
three monkey species, including the long-tailed macaque. It was
therefore not on the list of concerns for human
parasitic diseases until recently. Human malaria infections
from P.
malariae had been
eliminated in Malaysia due to programs from the government that
controlled the environment.
However, he explains that it is all but impossible to eliminate
these monkey populations. He explains efforts to control the
mosquito population instead as well as efforts to develop a vaccine
based on genetic sequencing efforts.
For more, see research gate and
pub med for his journal articles.
Available on Apple Podcasts: apple.co/2Os0myK