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Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz
Fundação Oswaldo Cruz, Fiocruz
ISSN: 1678-8060 EISSN: 1678-8060
Vol. 106, Num. s1, 2011, pp. 1
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Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, Vol. 106, Special Issue, pp. 1-2
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Luzia
Helena Carvalho1 , Ricardo Lourenço-de-Oliveira2
1Invited Editor for this Issue
2 Editor
Code Number: oc11134
This is the third
time that Memórias do Instituto Oswaldo Cruz has launched a special
issue entirely devoted to malaria.
The first of these
malaria-specific issues published contributions to the International Symposium
on Malaria (the 1st of the Brazilian Meetings on Malaria Research), which was
held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in 1986, when the number of recorded malaria
cases was rapidly increasing in Brazil, due to the disordered immigration to
some Amazonian areas in particular. That issue [Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz
81 (Suppl. II); available from memorias.ioc.fio-cruz.br/1986p.html]
represented a significant update of the knowledge on malaria at the time. In
1991, we published a supplement which recorded the main contributions to the
IV International Congress on Malaria and Babesiosis, also held in Rio, whose
contents are mostly dedicated to malaria studies [Mem Inst Oswaldo Cruz
87 (Suppl. III); available from memorias.ioc.fiocruz.br/1992p.html].
But the second entirely malaria-specific issue was published in 2007, to celebrate
the centenary of the discovery of the exo-erythrocytic cycle of the malaria
parasite by the Brazilian researcher Henrique Aragão. The issue included
an outstanding set of original papers and reviews from researchers all over
the world, covering various malaria-related topics [available from memorias.ioc.fiocruz.br/102(3)/102(3).htm)].
The present special issue is the result of a commitment by the scientific community
attending the XII Brazilian Meeting on Malaria Research, held in Ouro Preto,
Brazil, in 2010, the year in which we celebrated the centenary of the discovery
of the resistance of the malaria parasite to quinine by Arthur Neiva, another
Brazilian scientist at the Instituto Oswaldo Cruz, where H Aragão also
worked. A Neiva's outstanding discovery took place during his field work in
Xerém, in the surroundings of Rio de Janeiro, and was published in the
second volume of Memorias with the title Formação de
raça de hematozoário do impaludismo resistente a quinina [Mem
Inst Oswaldo Cruz 1: 131-140, 1910; available from memorias.ioc.fiocruz.br/pdf/Tomo02/tomo02(f1)_131-140.pdf].
At present, it
is estimated that half of the world's population is at risk of contracting malaria,
a parasitic disease that kills nearly one million people a year worldwide. Therefore,
the current issue on malaria studies is being published at a time when malaria
eradication is back on the global health agenda. Malaria must be targeted to
achieve the anti-poverty goals set by the United Nations Millennium Development
Goals, an unprecedented global effort to alleviate extreme poverty by 2015 (un.org/en/mdg/summit2010/).
The 28 reviews
and original contributions published in this special issue provide an overview
of the richness and diversity of topics addressed at the XII Brazilian Meeting
on Malaria Research and reflect the state-of-the-art of investigations involving
malaria parasites, the vertebrate host and the mosquito vectors. This collection
covers new scientific advancements in protective immune responses, vaccine development,
mechanisms of pathogenesis, biomarkers for infection and disease, and new targets
for chemotherapy based on knowledge of the parasite's metabolic pathways and
on ethnobotanical surveys. This issue also provides new insight into future
challenges posed by Plasmodium vivax infection - the most widely distributed
human malaria parasite - highlighting the cytoadherence phenomenon, disease
severity and genetic diversity. Beyond outlining the newest strategies of vector
control, the program emphasises the role of some regional and secondary mosquito
species that have been implicated on malaria transmission. Ultimately, understanding
the epidemiology of malaria transmission in endemic countries in Latin America,
especially in Brazil and Colombia, and in Africa may aid in developing new approaches
to the control and eventual elimination of transmission in some regions, as
requested by the Malaria Eradication Research Agenda (malera.tropika.net/).
All papers underwent
peer review and the usual editorial revision processes. We would like to thank
the numerous peer-reviewers from across the world for their detailed and useful
critiques of the manuscripts. Without these reviewers, whose expertise covers
various fields of the study of malaria, this special issue would not be possible.
Therefore, the Editors wholeheartedly thank these scientists for their indispensable
assistance.
Copyright © 2011 - Instituto Oswaldo Cruz - Fiocruz
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