idw – Informationsdienst Wissenschaft
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
Nachrichten, Termine, Experten
idw - Informationsdienst
Wissenschaft
Malaria and the Borrelia infection relapsing fever are diseases with similar symptoms that can occur simultaneously. In such cases, the malaria is moderated while the relapsing fever becomes more serious. This is shown in a new doctoral dissertation by Jenny Lundqvist at Umeå University in Sweden.
Malaria is a common disease in tropical Africa, causing between 1.5 and 2.7 million deaths each year. As a rule, only the clinical symptoms are used for quick diagnosis in order to prescribe the proper treatment. However, this type of presumptive diagnosis is problematic, as there are other diseases that have the same symptoms, such as relapsing fever (an infection caused by bacteria of the Borrelia genus).
How the patient is affect by this was previously unknown, and, to study the phenomenon, an animal model was created for this type of double infection. It turned out that when both diseases occur at the same time the malaria is much milder whereas the Borrelia infection in turn is more serious, indeed, fatal. This is because the immune defense focuses on the malaria infection, which means that the relapsing fever can grow unhampered. Mice with double infection develop severe anemia and serious internal damage, above all in the spleen, which is important for the immune defense. Malaria can also revive a dormant Borrelia in the brain and cause the relapsing fever to flare up anew.
This new knowledge about double infection by malaria and relapsing fever will be important for the diagnosis and treatment of both diseases, especially in Africa.
Jenny Lundqvistis a doctoral candidate at the Department of Molecular Biology and can be reached at cell phone: +46 (0)70-3589346 or e-mail jenny.lundqvist@molbiol.umu.se.
Pressofficer Hans Fällman; hans.fallman@adm.umu.se; +46-70 691 28 29
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-21845 dissertation
Criteria of this press release:
Medicine
transregional, national
Research results
English
You can combine search terms with and, or and/or not, e.g. Philo not logy.
You can use brackets to separate combinations from each other, e.g. (Philo not logy) or (Psycho and logy).
Coherent groups of words will be located as complete phrases if you put them into quotation marks, e.g. “Federal Republic of Germany”.
You can also use the advanced search without entering search terms. It will then follow the criteria you have selected (e.g. country or subject area).
If you have not selected any criteria in a given category, the entire category will be searched (e.g. all subject areas or all countries).
