Samuel C. Wassmer
Samuel Crocodile Wassmer is a 3rd-year Ph.D. candidate at the Laboratory of Immunopathology, University of 'La Méditerranée', Marseille (France). His research area is the immunopathology of cerebral malaria in African children. He and his colleagues have recently provided evidence for the involvement of platelets in the pathogenesis of this disease, and he is currently working on the in vitro* modeling of cerebral lesions. During the winter semester 2003-2004, he has begun a collaborative project in the framework of the Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Program in Blantyre, Malawi, including knowledge transfer and field research with local scientists.
Besides doing research in clinical and experimental parasitology, Samuel has been active in various non-governmental organizations combating malaria in Africa. The programmes he participated in have included the improvement of laboratory equipment in hospitals and distribution of information on the epidemiology and diagnosis of malaria to the public. In April 2004, he also attended a pan-African conference on malaria research perspectives in Pointe-Noire, Republic of Congo.
*in vitro:
taking place outside the living body, in scientific apparatus
|
Samuel C. Wassmer
Malaria mission and discoveries in Malawi
n
Enter the exhibition
After two years of intensive laboratory work on malaria in Marseille, I had my first mission to Blantyre, Malawi in October 2003. I was more than euphoric to begin my field research there, which was, and according to me, is a necessary experience to have a complete view of this parasitic disease we are fighting day after day. In fact, a global improvement in the treatment of malaria and new drug discoveries depend very much on analyses collaboratively done by research laboratories of well-developed countries and African scientists. The aim of our three-week work-visit in Blantyre was a real exchange of knowledge, materials and technologies with the local team. Due to the success of our first mission, a second visit is planned to August-September 2004.
Malawi is a South-East African country, which covers an area of 118 484 km2 and has a total of 10 million inhabitants. Despite the economic problems, the country has heavily invested in health. According to UNICEF statistics, there is a reasonable network of health facilities in Malawi (the median distance from home to the nearest facility is 5 km). However, improvements in health are smaller than expected. Currently, life expectancy at birth is only 44 years, largely because of high mortality amongst children, mainly due to malaria and HIV. The research programme in Blantyre has been running for more than ten years. It has focused on malaria and other significant diseases in Malawi, and helped to strengthen the research capacity and improve diagnosis and treatment of malaria in the country. The research is led by Professor Malcolm Molyneux. The new research laboratories designed for the programme were opened in 1999 with the support of the Wellcome Trust.
In this famous laboratory of Malawi, I met and worked with several outstanding scientists. My “adoptive” team consisted of Dr Jacqui Montgomery and her two Malawian PhD students, Fingani Mphande and Happy Phiri. It is through them that I got to know how kind Malawian people are, and I discovered gorgeous places and fantastic landscapes with them. During the two weekends that I spent there, we explored marvelous places.
Our first excursion took me to the Liwonde National Park, between Lake Malombe and Lake Chilwa, in South Malawi. After a three-hour trip in the dusty countryside, we were welcomed by a herd of antelopes at the entry of the Park. Once we arrived in Mvuu Camp (mvuu means hippopotamus in Chichewa, the local language), we put up our tents and left for a sunset safari. An elephant family was resting in the high golden grass, near the camp, and we observed them playing in the sun for a while. Waterbucks were also enjoying the last rays of sunlight, and got a bit curious about our car. We finally stopped at the riverside, and had a world-famous Malawian gin and tonic to celebrate the end of the day, with the background music of fishermen songs… A magical moment.
After a hectic night when elephants and hippos had come close to our tents and left us sleepless, early morning we set out on an aquatic safari. Curiously enough, the eyes of the animals are wild with terror when you approach them by car, while they seem to be only surprised and never flee when you are getting close by a dugout canoe. This is the best gift you can offer to an amateur photographer: to let him observe wildlife as it is and immortalize it in pictures. Crocodiles, hippos and elephants were all performing their morning ablutions and we were delighted by the ethereal ballet of aquatic birds.
The second weekend we went trekking in the vast massif of Mount Mulanje, situated in the southeast corner of Malawi, close to the Mozambique border. Including the highest point of the country, Sapitwa, at just over 3,000 meters (9,842 feet), this is the largest mountain in south-central Africa and one of the world's largest granite inselbergs (inselbergs are rocky masses that resisted erosion and stand isolated in an essentially level area). The Mulanje peaks often jut out from the mist which frequently surrounds the upper slopes, giving the mountain one of its local names, 'Island in the Sky.' The landscape for me was extremely strange: it seemed to be a mixture of Europe in autumn and Japan in spring… The air was very sultry and the mountain was as silent as the grave. Strange and magical. We finally enjoyed the delicious coolness of water in the waterfalls and had a long siesta under the flamtrees. We were simply delirious with joy there.
To be continued... for the second mission starts on 18 August, 2004.
Enter the exhibition
|
Malaria
Malaria is a parasitic disease by which 300-500 million persons are infected every year according to WHO estimates. Each year there are about 2.5 million deaths world-wide from this disease and almost all of them are attributable to Plasmodium falciparum, a parasite transmitted by the anopheline mosquito. The large majority of the life-threatening malaria cases occur in African children, especially in those of sub-Saharan Africa.
The classical clinical symptoms consist of bouts of fever accompanied by headache, malaise, nausea, muscular pain, or mild diarrhea. Cerebral malaria and severe anemia are the most serious complications of P. falciparum infection and are associated with a high mortality rate. The pathogenic mechanisms underlying cerebral malaria are not fully understood and it is not clear why only a small percentage of patients infected with P. falciparum develop the cerebral syndrome. Apart from factors related to transmission characteristics and the virulence and drug sensitivity of the infectious agent (P. falciparum), numerous genetic, nutritional, and immunological host factors have been implicated.
A characteristic feature of the histopathology of cerebral malaria is the sequestration of P. falciparum-infected erythrocytes in the brain microvasculature. However, recent histopathological analyses have also revealed platelet sequestration in brain vessels of Malawian children who died from cerebral malaria. These results led Samuel and his colleagues to develop a collaborative project between France and Malawi and assess the role of platelets in the development of the disease. During the past two years, they provided in vitro evidence for the crucial role of platelets in parasite accumulation within the brain microvasculature. Indeed, platelets can adhere to the vessel wall even under flow conditions, and may provide new receptors for the parasite, allowing thereby for its sequestration (for more details see Wassmer et al., Journal of Infectious Diseases, 15 January 2004).
|
Further information on malaria and related topics: African Malaria Network Trust (AMANET)
|
