6: Tafenoquine & Climate Change

Hello! During week 6 I continued my progress on the report but began research into malaria control methods both around the world and efforts uniquely implemented into Pakistan’s progress in vector control. 

Pakistan’s battle against the recent surge in malaria cases involves a combination of established control methods and an innovative treatment option. The primary control methods Pakistan is using are insecticide treated nets, used indoors to repel mosquitoes and reduce transmission. Additionally, increased accessibility to rapid tests and treatment has helped many more vulnerable communities with less access to funding for care. These are methods that are also commonly used in other regions; one specifically used in Pakistan in the past year is tafenoquine. Tafenoquine is a single-dose radical cure, newly licensed, that is used for prophylaxis of malaria and vivax malaria. Vivax malaria is transmitted via plasmodium vivax, the parasite that transmits malaria most prevalently in Pakistan (I’ve expanded upon this in previous weeks). 

Regarding the environment, the primary cause of the floods in Pakistan, which as I’ve explained in previous blog posts are responsible for the sudden spike in malaria cases, is climate change. This much is evident enough, as rising temperatures in the north have accelerated the melting of glaciers and ice caps, causing excessive water flow in rivers and streams, leading to floods in these regions. In the southern parts, the change to warmer temperatures of the Indian Ocean are what led to unprecedented rains in Pakistan. This is to say that one control method that could prevent this in the future would be floodplain management. This would be effective by implementing building embankments, improving drainage systems, and promoting early warning systems to lessen the impact of future floods on current or known mosquito breeding grounds. 

Thanks for reading this week’s blog! Next week I’ll be continuing my progress on the rough draft of my paper, though I don’t think I have to keep mentioning it. I’ll still be researching more into vector control methods that could be adaptable to regions like the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh, and Balochistan provinces within Pakistan. This will likely continue for a while longer, and I can only recap a small amount in these blogs, but data gathering and knowing what data to gather in the first place is still an issue, so I’ll be continuing with what is working for now. See you next week!