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HOEDSPRUIT (Mail & Guardian)- January is mango season in Hoedspruit, in the Limpopo province, and casual fruit pickers, mostly women, flood the area's farms in search of work.

Conditions on the farms already make them a potential breeding ground for HIV infection. Workers usually live in overcrowded compounds away from their families and isolated from HIV and Aids interventions. Myths about HIV abound, condom use is low and risky sexual behaviour is high, according to a 2004 survey by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

With the arrival of the seasonal workers, the possibility of HIV transmission increases. Desperate to secure employment for the duration of the harvest, it is not uncommon for young women to have sex with male supervisors, known as indunas, in exchange for a job; becoming the "girlfriend" of a supervisor for the season can guarantee accommodation on the farm and better working conditions.

"I can promise a job to a woman in exchange for sleeping with her," one male supervisor says. "A lot of supervisors have maybe 10 girlfriends through the season."

The IOM survey found that 52% of female workers interviewed on farms in Limpopo and Mpumalanga provinces had exchanged sex for food, clothing, gifts or money. Compared with their male counterparts, female workers had lower levels of knowledge about HIV and Aids, and were about half as likely to use condoms in casual sexual relationships.

One of the main reasons they gave for not using condoms was that their husbands or boyfriends did not like them.

Intervention

Following the survey findings, the IOM began partnering with Hlokomela, a programme established by local farm owners to provide their workers with HIV/Aids prevention and care. But such interventions did not go far enough in addressing the unequal relations between male and female farmworkers that were fuelling the incidence of gender-based violence and HIV infection on the farms.

"There was a sense that there needed to be an intervention that would speak to men and bring them on board," says Bafana Khumalo, co-director of Sonke Gender Justice, a Cape Town-based NGO that works to reduce the spread and impact of HIV and Aids by focusing primarily on gender issues.

In August 2006, staff from Sonke Gender Justice facilitated week-long workshops that drew participants from 28 local farms and three distinct groups: male supervisors, young male and female workers, and Hlokomela's caregivers. The workshops used activities aimed at challenging traditional attitudes about the roles of men and women, and educating participants about how those attitudes put them at risk of HIV infection.

"That workshop changed everything for me," says Sam Baloyi, a supervisor on Richmond Farm outside Hoedspruit. "Before, when I beat my wife I was very angry, but after five minutes I felt so ashamed, so I wanted to change."

Since attending the workshop, Baloyi said he now helps his wife with household chores and no longer drinks or has girlfriends. He is still working up the courage to take an HIV test.

Prevalence

HIV prevalence among farmworkers in the Hoedspruit area is not known, but the National African Farmers' Union has estimated that an alarming 30% to 45% of farmworkers are living with HIV nationally.

"We treat a lot of STIs [sexually transmitted infections], but there's still a big reluctance to test [for HIV]," says Christine du Preez, Hlokomela's programme manager and a professional nurse who divides her time between clinics on several farms in the area. "The other day we had a big HIV-awareness event, but out of the 170 or so people who came, only five tested."

Baloyi now belongs to a farm committee called a "lifestyle action team", set up on each of the farms that drew workshop participants with the aim of disseminating some of the workshop's messages, distributing male and female condoms, and coming up with tailored interventions.

"We're trying to engage people with sports and recreation so they drink less," says Baloyi. "And there's no shebeen [informal drinking establishment] here any more -- we've closed it."

Behaviour change has been more incremental for some workshop participants. Supervisor Victor Madike (41) used to think nothing of groping his female workers' breasts and buttocks. He had numerous girlfriends with whom he never used condoms, and his response to his wife's suspicions about them was to beat her.

Madike still prefers his wife and six children to stay in their village, but he has reduced his extramarital affairs to one girlfriend who stays with him on the farm, and he now uses condoms. "I don't enjoy like before, but I comply," he says grimly.

As a member of his farm's action team, Madike says he is trying to spread the message to other supervisors not to use their position of authority to harass sexually or exploit female workers.

First step

The manager of Bavaria Farm, Johann du Preez, is careful to describe the workshops as just the first step in bringing greater openness about sexual abuse and HIV to the farms.

"I think it has made a difference, even if it's only on an awareness level," he says. "It's getting people talking out there in the orchards, and it's creating a bit of peer-group pressure, whereas before it wasn't even talked about."

Du Preez has noted a dramatic rise in the number of deaths among his employees in recent years, particularly the more senior workers who can afford to offer something in return for sex. Such workers are difficult to replace and, according to Du Preez, most farmers would rather invest in prevention and treatment than in recruiting and training replacements.

A local farmers' forum is discussing the possibility of funding a clinic to provide antiretroviral (ARV) treatment to farmworkers. The nearest government ARV site is Tintswalo Hospital in Acornhoek, about 50km away, where there is a three-month waiting period for treatment, according to Du Preez.

With continued funding from IOM, the European Union and the Department of Health, another set of workshops is planned in the coming months. The eventual goal, says Khumalo, is to train Hlokomela's staff to take over the entire initiative.

Labels: disease, HIV/AIDS

JOHANNESBURG- South Africa's animal authorities are battling an outbreak of a killer disease near the Kruger National Park in the country's northern Limpopo province, the Department of Agriculture has said.

The department said the foot-and-mouth-disease (FMD) outbreak was inside a buffer zone around the tourist attraction set up to prevent the spread of the virus from the park, where it is endemic and permanently carried by the African buffalo.

"An outbreak of FMD was confirmed in cattle at the Matiani dipping tank next to the Punda Maria Gate of the Kruger National Park," the department said in a statement.

The locality is in the far northeast of the country near the point where the borders of South Africa, Mozambique and Zimbabwe converge.

The highly contagious, killer virus was observed in late July and has since been confirmed by a state laboratory. Eleven of a herd of 35 cattle were infected.

One of the diseases most dreaded by livestock owners, foot and mouth is a highly contagious viral infection that affects pigs, cattle, sheep and goats. It does not however affect humans.

"The authorities expect that the situation can be brought under control rapidly without undue effects on the agricultural industry as a whole," the department added.

Control measures in the area have been intensified and no cloven-hoof animals or their products may leave the area.

"The detection of positive cases in the buffer zone do not affect the status of South Africa's FMD free zone without vaccination, as recognised by the International Office of Epizootics (Animal World Health Organisation), and thus do not affect the export status of the country," the department added.

"In line with the protocol, this case has been reported to the OIE."

Labels: disease, foot and mouth, great limpopo park, greater limpopo park, northern kruger, punda maria

HOEDSPRUIT- "Farm workers should take care of each other- always use a condom", reads a poster at a bus terminal in the small town of Hoedspruit, in South Africa's Limpopo province, where hundreds of farm labourers arrive daily searching for work.

Migrant farmworkers in Southern Africa are often a forgotten population, with little HIV/AIDS support provided despite being a high-risk group. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM) is trying to address that lapse with 'Project Hlokomela', an initiative offering prevention and care in Hoedspruit.

In the northern province of Limpopo, situated along the Mozambican border, many of the farm workers are male labourers from Mozambique who stay on farms for short periods and have a high level of mobility.

When the project was launched in 2005, Armindo Sitoi was one of the first people to be tested- and found out he was HIV negative.

Born in southern Mozambique, Sitoi fled from the civil war in the 1980s and has been working in South Africa ever since. "My parents died during the war and my brothers are all missing ... perhaps they're living here in South Africa," he told PlusNews while loading oranges into the back of a trailer.

Fellow Mozambican Alice Sambane has been living in Hoedspruit since 1988, and welcomed the move to introduce HIV/AIDS awareness among farm workers. "There was little information about AIDS here. I think they should do the same everywhere else."

The new project reaches more than 3,000 workers in 18 of the 300 farms in Hoedspruit. In each farm, a farmworker known as the Nompilo ("Mother of Life" in Zulu) is selected to create awareness among the workers on issues such as prevention, nutrition, stigma and discrimination.

Hlokomela is also hoping to soon provide free antiretroviral (ARV) treatment, as public health facilities offering the life-prolonging drugs are up to 75kms from the farms, said the project's coordinator, Christine Du Preez.

Travelling to the local ARV site can cost up to R90 (US$12), out of reach for the majority of farmworkers who earn about R800 (US$111) a month. In addition, fear of deportation has meant that hardly any Mozambican immigrants made use of government counselling and testing facilities.

The IOM estimates that between 10,000 to 80,000 Mozambicans live in Limpopo, one of the country's richest agricultural areas. According to a survey conducted by the agency in 2003, despite high levels of HIV prevalence, farmworkers still did not know enough about the virus.

Researchers noted that high-risk sexual behaviour between men and women working on farms was common, and the "incidence of concurrent sexual relationships was unexpectedly high".

With a "striking lack of ... HIV/AIDS interventions directed specifically at farmworkers and migrants", there was poor knowledge of HIV/AIDS, allowing many myths about the disease to go unchallenged, the report found. It noted the belief that AIDS could be cured, was widespread.

"When one's daily life is a struggle in so many respects, HIV/AIDS appears as a distant threat - only one of many faced daily by workers," the researchers remarked.

Labels: disease, HIV/AIDS, hoedspruit

KRUGER NATIONAL PARK- Veterinary surgeons and researchers were closely monitoring an outbreak of anthrax in the north of the park.

"We would like to assure the public that this is a minor outbreak... and, at this stage, there is no major cause for concern as similar outbreaks have occurred in the past without spreading further," KNP executive director Bandile Mkhize said in a statement on Friday.

The far north of the park is historically an endemic anthrax area and sporadic cases occur annually.
Large outbreaks were recorded in the area in the early 1960s, 70s and 90s.

"Although this disease naturally occurs in that part of the KNP, we will continue to intensively monitor the situation and take the necessary steps should (it) worsen," Mkhize said.

Anthrax is a deadly viral disease which affects cloven-hoofed animals.

A total of 15 carcasses, which include kudu, nyala, buffalo and giraffe, have been found in the area over the last few weeks and all contained traces of anthrax.

Labels: anthrax, disease

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC- Attacks by African lions on people and livestock have been in the news lately, but on the whole humans present a much greater threat to Africa's lions than the lions do to humans.

South Africa's free-ranging lion population, an estimated 2,700 animals living mostly in the ecosystem surrounding Kruger National Park in the northeast corner of the country, is among those at risk.

One possible threat is bovine tuberculosis, a disease probably introduced to South Africa through domestic cattle brought in by European settlers at the end of the 18th century.

The disease also afflicts animals in the Serengeti grasslands and woodlands in northern Tanzania and southern Kenya. But according to Craig Packer, professor of zoology at the University of Minnesota, TB isn't as important an issue there.

"While it seems that TB is a worse problem in Kruger than elsewhere, it is still not clear that the disease is as devastating as people originally claimed," he said. "While we still have TB in Tanzania, it isn't a problem that we worry much about."

Dewald Keet, the chief veterinarian at Kruger National Park, does worry. He said that bovine tuberculosis is an ever-increasing threat to Kruger lions. But because TB is increasing at a slow rate, people may have the mistaken impression that it has stabilized.

"Nothing is being done to control the disease except research," he said. According to Keet, the prevalence of the disease in lions in the southern half of the park varies between 48 percent and 78 percent.

He explained that lions first contracted the disease when eating infected buffalo carcasses, and the southern region of the park is where TB prevalence is highest in African buffalo. Lions in Kruger are also infecting each other through biting and aerosol transmission, Keet said.

About 25 lions die of TB every year in Kruger, but even more important is the effect of the disease on lion social behavior. Males are weakened by the chronic disease, and this, Keet said, leads to "faster territorial male turnover and consequent infanticide, eviction of entire prides, and a decrease in average longevity."

"Canned" Hunting

Hunting lions is still legal in South Africa. According to Karyl Whitman, a graduate student in the Department of Ecology, Evolution, and Behavior at the University of Minnesota, "nearly all of the hunting is conducted on private ranches, and thus on small 'manicured' populations as opposed to 'wild' viable populations."

This kind of "canned" hunting is controversial, and, in Whitman's view, "distasteful." She adds that it may have at least one redeeming feature in that it takes the pressure off wild populations in other areas. "But I know of no studies that have that documented," she warned.

Whitman said that hunters are divided on the subject of the ethics of canned hunting. "One might argue that 'hunters' are opposed to it," she said, "but 'shooters' are not."

Luring Free-Ranging Lions

Keet sees another danger: hunters who lure lions with bait or sound, especially large, free-ranging males from protected areas. Hunters are only interested in big, preferably black-maned lions, Keet said, and killing them can be disastrous. "It causes a chain reaction where new males then move in and kill the offspring of the hunted males."

Trophy hunters claim about 150 South African lions each year, but the South African government views this trade as sustainable. An April 2004 proposal by the Kenya Wildlife Service for the management of Africa's lion population asserted that current levels of hunting are unsustainable.

In response, Pieter Botha of South Africa's Environmental Affairs and Tourism Department, wrote that this might apply to some countries, but not to South Africa.

South Africa exports more lions and lion body parts than any country except Tanzania. South Africa contributes about 30 percent of lions hunted in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Future of South African Lions

Although there are some small populations of lions outside of the Kruger ecosystem, they are not self-sustaining, and, according to Keet, they have to be managed with occasional additions and removals.

Keet worries, though, about the continuing health of the free-ranging population. "Bovine tuberculosis is not a disease that will disappear from the Kruger ecosystem unless radically combated," he said. "And by now it is probably too late."

Click here for the full National Geographic article.

Labels: canned hunting, disease, lions, tuberculosis

HOEDSPRUIT (Kruger Times)- Scientists are thinking laterally in an attempt to combat one of Africa’s worst killers– malaria.

Using nature to fight nature, a new study has shown that fungi have the potential to stop malaria transmission. Two separate experiments reported in the journal Science have found that fungi already on the market as biopesticides can infect adult malaria-carrying mosquitoes and kill them.

Researchers from the University of Edinburgh and Imperial College found that the fungus Beauveria bassiana could reduce the number of mosquitoes able to transmit malaria by a factor of about 80.

Homing in this species because of its ability to infect a range of insects, the scientists sprayed cardboard pots with an oil laden with fungal spores. Mosquitoes become infected with the fungus simply by resting on the pots. Death is slow, but as it takes about two weeks for a mosquito to start transmitting the malarial parasite after it is first infected, this is not really a factor. Mosquitoes infected with the fungus died much faster than uninfected mosquitoes, and were less likely to look for a blood feed. This would also reduce the transmission of the malarial parasite.

Other researchers took to the field in Tanzania with another biopesticide, Metarhizium anisopliae. Black sheets were sprayed with the fungal spores and hung in the roof of traditional houses in a rural village. Over the course of three weeks, 23 percent of the mosquitoes caught in the experimental houses became infected with the fungus and died a premature death.

The researchers estimated that if they increased the area covered by the spray and improved its formulation they could infect half the mosquitoes in the house with the fungus. With only half the mosquito population succumbing to the fungal spores, their calculations show that the rate of malaria transmission could be lowered by 96 percent.

Using a biological control agent to fight malaria has only been done previously with mosquito larvae, where a bacterium is sprayed onto water. Using a fungus as a biocontrol agent has the advantage that mosquitoes do not have to ingest the fungus – it penetrates directly into their system through body parts in contact with the spores. Using a known biopesticide also means that some research has already been performed on the fungus prior to its sale to consumers.

The research also has added value because mosquitoes in some areas are becoming resistant to the ordinary insecticides used to control them.

Although optimistic about this potential new weapon in the malaria war, the scientists have warned that at best it would take about two years to commercialise these findings.

by Lynette Strauss, Kruger Times

Labels: disease, malaria, tanzania

HOEDSPRUIT (Kruger Times)- Passed down from generation to generation in the closed circles of traditional healers is a wealth of herbal knowledge. Now that intangible wisdom is about to pay dividends for traditional healers and rural communities through the sale of a highly effective mosquito repellent candle.

After a decade of research and development by the CSIR (Council for Scientific and Industrial Research) a candle that contains an entirely new mosquito repellent is almost ready for the market. The candle contains an essential oil extracted from an indigenous plant that has traditionally been hung in houses to repel mosquitoes. The CSIR has been collaborating with traditional healers for several years, trying to discover the scientific basis of ancient remedies, and then produce commercially viable products.

Tests conducted by the South African Bureau of Standards have found the new oil to be significantly more effective than other products currently on the market. Trials showed that at least 95 percent of mosquitoes are repelled from a chamber exposed to a burning candle that contain the new oil, compared to only 42 percent deterred by other products.

The search for the active ingredient in the new candles was not without its detours. The researchers investigated many specimens of the plant, known as BP1 (Bioprospecting 1), but found that the compounds they extracted varied from place to place and plant to plant. Traditional healers already had a sense of this, as they identify the correct plant not only by its appearance, but also by the specific texture of its leaves and their individual smell.

To uncover the mystery of the identical-looking but chemically different plants (chemotypes), the CSIR looked for an undisturbed ecosystem where the plant grew that was also in a malaria area. This led them to the Kruger National Park, where they were able to gather plants that had not been affected by the selective harvesting carried out by healers, which may have upset the natural balance of different chemotypes in traditional harvesting areas

According to Dr Marthinus Horak, manager of the CSIR’s bioprospecting programme, the park provided a “very valuable” contribution to the research. He added that this is also an example of why it is important to have national parks.

Analysis showed that there are seven different chemotypes of BP1 lurking under the surface of seemingly identical leaves. Only two of these are efficient at driving away the annoying drone of mosquitoes. Using the information gained from the Kruger Park’s BP1 populations, the CSIR was then able to selectively cultivate only the seeds of those plants that contained the correct essential oils.

Armed with this knowledge, the CSIR returned to the rural areas where the search for new herbal remedies began. Having patented the mosquito-repelling essential oil, intensive horticulture of BP1 got underway as community-owned businesses . To date, the CSIR has established these new agro processing businesses in Mpumalanga, Limpopo, the Western and Eastern Cape as well as the Free State. The establishment of these businesses are funded by the poverty alleviation mechanisms of the Departments of Science and Technology and Environmental Affairs and Tourism.

Plots of about 30 hectares have been chosen as the optimum size, and the CSIR has enabled the transfer of technology to rural people so that they can successfully germinate and propagate the precious plants. Two fully operational distilleries to extract the essential oil are now in place alongside the cultivated lands, and the pilot site in Giyani, Limpopo, will be home to the first candle making plant.

Horak says that every hectare of cultivated land creates at least one new job. Jobs range from simple gardening activities to more complex plant propagation carried out by supervisors. Each distillery also employs four to five people, and depending on production volumes a candle-making factory can employ around ten people.

The oils are distilled from the top growth of a plant, and under favourable conditions leaves can be reaped three times a year. Candles were chosen to be the first method of distributing the essential oil, although Horak says that other mosquito repellent products are likely to be developed in future.

The first generation of candles is aimed at the eco-tourism market, but Horak hopes that in time the candles used to illuminate rural homes will contain the essential oil, providing both light and protection from malaria-carrying mosquitoes.

By obtaining a patent on the oils used in the candles the CSIR is also able to help the rural communities where the knowledge stemmed from. In terms of a benefit-sharing agreement signed between CSIR and traditional healers, royalties from the sale of products containing BP1 essential oils will be fed into a trust fund. Projects that benefit the entire community, such as health and education facilities, can then be financed through the trust.

By the end of 2005, South Africans are likely to be burning the products of BP1 in their homes, but a huge international market is also waiting on the doorstep. Other countries plagued by mosquitoes have expressed an interest in the candle, and the once secret wisdom of the traditional healers may become incorporated into a globally popular product.

Horak is positive about the future of the enterprise. “There is a fantastic export market.” He adds that other countries require mosquito repellents, “not only for the nuisance value of mosquitoes, but also because of other mosquito-borne diseases such as dengue fever.”

by Lynette Strauss, Kruger Times

Labels: disease, malaria

HARARE- An anthrax outbreak has killed 1500 animals, mostly kudus, in two conservation areas next to one of Zimbabwe's largest game parks, the director of veterinary services said today.

"It's the first time for Zimbabwe to have had a major anthrax outbreak in wildlife areas," Stuart Hargreaves, the director of livestock and veterinary services, said in an interview with Associated French Press.

The outbreak was detected three weeks ago in Malalangwe and Save conservation areas situated near the south-eastern Gonarezhou National Park.

"In both these areas about 1,500 animals have died," said Mr Hargreaves.

"About 80 per cent of the animals that have died are kudus and the others are buffaloes and antelopes," he said.

Gonarezhou Park is part of the 95,000sqkm Greater Limpopo Transfrontier Park which brings together part of the Kruger National Park in South Africa and the Limpopo National Park in Mozambique.

Mr Hargreaves said government and other wildlife agencies had moved in fast to control the outbreak by vaccinating at least 700 endangered rhinos and buffaloes, and disposing of the dead animals.

Of the 1,500 animals that were killed, 1,400 carcasses have been incinerated to prevent lions, hyenas and vultures from eating the dead animals.

"This is the reason the disease is diminishing," he said.

He expressed concern that the disease might spread to Gonarezhou.

"It could well spread to Gonarezhou because it is right next door, (but) we don't want the disease to spread and we are trying our best to control it," he said.

He suspects the disease could have entered wildlife through cattle and vultures.

An anthrax outbreak forced the closure of most of Botswana's Chobe National Park after close to 200 buffaloes, elephants and a hippo died. The outbreak has also spread to Namibia.

Anthrax is an acute infectious disease caused by spore-forming bacteria which can survive in the ground for a long time.

Symptoms include skin infections that can develop into ulcers or swelling of lymph glands, breathing problems, vomiting and fever.

Labels: anthrax, disease, zimbabwe

PRETORIA- It has cost the government about R20M so far to contain the foot-and-mouth outbreak in Limpopo.

Francois Schreuder of the national operational centre monitoring the outbreak, told Beeld on Tuesday that broken fences were to blame for the spread of the sickness.

According to him, the main culprits for the broken fences are elephants who trample them.

He said the Department of Agriculture was aware of the enormity of the problem, and had poured millions of Rand into containing the disease.

This comes after a number of farmers told Beeld that broken fences on the government farm, Letaba Ranch, could have contributed to the spread of foot-and-mouth.

According to Schreuder, the highly contagious disease that affects cloven-hoofed animals, such as cattle, is under control.

The disease is contained within a buffer zone of about 25km in length that runs alongside the Kruger National Park.

A second quarantine area of between 15km and 30km lies between Giyani and Phalaborwa.

Labels: disease, foot and mouth, northern kruger

LONDON- A new malaria drug based on a traditional Chinese remedy promises the biggest breakthrough in a generation against the world’s second most deadly infectious disease after Aids, scientists said yesterday.

Animal and computer studies of the therapy, known as OZ227 or OZ, suggest that it will be the most potent and effective weapon yet developed against malaria, which kills a million people a year and infects up to 500 million more.

Safety tests in Britain have already shown that OZ has no significant side-effects, and clinical trials of its effectiveness in patients are to begin in Africa and Thailand next year.

If these go as well as scientists expect, the drug could be given to people with the disease within four years.

OZ is modelled on the action of the most effective known anti-malarial, a Chinese herbal medicine called artemisinin extracted from the sweet wormwood plant, Artemisia annua.

Although artemisinin-based drugs are currently the best available treatment for the disease, the high cost of the refinement process makes them up to 20 times more expensive than standard therapies. This generally puts them beyond the means of poor countries in Africa, South America and Asia, where malaria is endemic.

The new drug, developed by a partnership between the non-profit Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) and Ranbaxy, an Indian pharmaceutical company, is modelled on the molecular structure of artemisinin and kills the malaria parasite in exactly the same way. Research indicates that its antimalarial action is even more powerful.

OZ is entirely synthetic, and can thus be mass-produced much more cheaply than natural artemisinin, without the need to extract chemicals from a plant. It also has a longer shelf life than the natural drug, and fewer doses are needed to produce its full effects.

“This could be the biggest breakthrough in malaria treatment in our generation,” Christopher Hentschel, chief executive of MMV, said.

“The need to develop a low-cost, potent synthetic antimalarial drug is more urgent than ever. This project has surpassed our expectations. The animal models are quite predictive and they show that the drug is very very potent, much more potent than anything else we have seen.

“We already know that this class of drug works, so the risk it won’t work in humans is very low. The data for this particular group are very convincing indeed.”

Brian Tempest, chief executive of Ranbaxy, said: “Our scientists are excited to be able to work on a drug that could save millions of lives.”

Malaria kills more people worldwide than any infectious disease apart from Aids, and is the leading cause of death among children in sub-Saharan Africa. An estimated 2 billion people — a third of the world’s population — live in regions where it is endemic.

The annual cost of the disease in Africa, where it is most prevalent and deadly, is $12 billion (£6.5 billion) in lost GDP, and it consumes 40 per cent of African health budgets.

The disease is caused by the Plasmodium falciparum parasite, and is transmitted to humans via mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles. The species Anopheles gambiae is the most dangerous vector.

Efforts to control malaria have foundered in recent years because of the parasite’s growing resistance to traditional drugs. Chloroquine, the cheapest and most common treatment, is now 90 per cent useless in sub-Saharan Africa.

OZ was developed by an international team led by Jonathan Vennerstrom of the University of Nebraska, who used artemisinin as a template to create a “wish list” of properties that an ideal antimalarial drug should have.

Sophisticated computer models were then used to generate thousands of candidate molecules, the most effective of which was OZ. Details of the research are published today in the journal Nature.

The drug is the most significant advance yet for the MMV, which spends $30 million a year on malaria research. It is largely funded by the public and philanthropic sector. The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation is its largest private donor, and Britain its most significant government supporter.

Independent malaria experts said that the drug was an exciting advance, although they cautioned against excessive optimism before the trials are complete.

Brian Greenwood, Professor of Tropical Medicine at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, said: “The most promising new drug for treatment, derived from a plant called Artemisia annua, is now being used more frequently, but making it is difficult and expensive.

“This is because the plant takes about 18 months to grow and then the drug needs to be extracted. This new research has produced a drug very similar to that from plants, but without the time and expense of waiting for the plant to grow and extracting the compound. This should make the drug easier to produce and less expensive.”

Robert Sinden, Professor of Parasite Cell Biology at Imperial College, said: “The discovery of a method for the direct chemical synthesis of this family of compounds, which has the potential to reduce the production costs, and therefore increase the availability, of these drugs is a major step forward.

“However, the fight is not over; resistance to these drugs will evolve, and the search for new drugs, vaccines and other measures to halt transmission of this expanding disease must be pursued with vigour.”

Labels: disease, malaria

Bovine tuberculosis, a highly contagious disease among buffalo in the Kruger National Park, has increased in the park's southern and central regions over the past six years.

A census in 1998 found that the southern region had the highest infection rate at 38% of buffalo tested for the disease, but this has since gone up to 43%. The increase is even higher in the central region, where it has increased from 16% to 25%. In the Satara area, 10% of healthy animals are infected annually.

American scientists are now helping to research the spread of the disease. The project is funded by the United States National Science Foundation and started in 2001.

Scientists from both the University of Berkeley in California and the University of Pretoria are working with Park officials to track the infected buffalo.

The Kruger project was chosen because buffalo move freely over a wide geographical area, but are still within a controlled area.

Between 80 and 90 buffalo in the central region of the park have been fitted with radio collars and have been found to move as far north as Punda Maria, while some have been spotted in the neighbouring Manyeleti and Klaserie Game Reserves.

Evidence suggests that bovine TB entered Kruger in the early 60s when there were outbreaks in the cattle population along the southern border of the Park.

Buffalo are not the only species that can be infected with bovine TB. Since 1990 it has also been found in lions, leopards, cheetahs, kudus and chacma baboons in the park.

In Buffalo and grazers, the disease is spread through breathing, sneezing and saliva, while predators get it by eating infected animals.

Kruger Park Times

Labels: central kruger, disease, klaserie, manyeleti, punda maria, southern kruger, tuberculosis