TANZANIA EMBARKS ON NEW SEARCH FOR ANTI-MALARIA DRUG

A major research aimed to develop new anti-malarial drugs from herbal extracts gets off soon in Tanzania.

The programme will be spearheaded by the Nelson Mandela African Institution of Science and Technology (NM-AIST).

Under it, experts will carry tests on  herbal extracts that can make effective drugs against the parasitic, mosquito-borne disease.

"We are very passionate about this", said Prof Hulda Shaidi Swai, the university don who will lead a team of scientists in the programme. 

Renewed search for malaria cure had been made possible following a $ 1 million grant to the university from the National Research Foundation of South Africa (NRF)

NRF is the intermediary agency between the South African government and research institutions within and outside that country.

The Arusha-based pan African university won the grant under the Oliver Tambo Chair Awards aimed to motivate scientific research in Africa. 

Prof. Swai, a nanotechnology scientist, said the project will be anchored at  NM -AIST and that it will take 15 years in three phases. 

It will be implemented at the intervals of five years each for $1million, making a total of $ 3million for the entire project's three phases. 

The second and third tranche will be remitted  depending on successful implementation of the initial phase of $1million, she explained.

"Malaria remains one of the world's deadliest diseases, killing half a million people every year. There is no effective drug so far. 

"Chloroquine has been withdrawn. Artemisinin is the only malaria drug available today. But it has a low potency amid its high cost", she said this week.

She added that due to signs that malarial parasites are developing resistance to the drug, therapies that combine the drug and its derivatives are now preferred. 

Artemisinin, developed from herbal extracts in China, has increasingly lost favour from the World Health Organization (WHO) due to its low potency.

"Under this project, teams of our researchers will scan our forests in search of herbal extracts with  potential for malaria cure", she explained. 

The exercise will kick off any time soon once funds are remitted by the sponsors and that it would boost the research agenda at NM-AIST.

While the grant will come with cash for  upgrading of the laboratories and other structures, the project will complement training of students.

The award-winning don said Tanzania has great potential herbal extracts that can make  compounds with high efficacy against malaria. 

Malaria accounts for a major health burden in Tanzania, with more than 90 per cent of the population at risk of transmission. 

 In 2019 an estimated 229 million cases of malaria occurred worldwide, killing 409,000 people, 94 per cent of them in Africa. 

According to Prof. Swai, the new search for malaria drug will  be realized through the application of nanotechnology.

This is an emerging high technology which medical experts say has a great potential for the fight against a myriad of diseases.

Prof Swai heads the African Centre for  Research,Agricultural Advancement, Teaching,Excellence and Sustainability (Creates) at Nelson Mandela University. 

The 67 year old scholar was recently declared the 2020 winner of the African Union (AU) scientific award for her dedication to promote science, innovation and research in the continent.