Malaria Observation Day at UC Davis on April 25

With all the news media coverage lately on the Zika virus, the more pressing disease of malaria may seem overshadowed.

It shouldn't be, nor is it, at the University of California, Davis.

Medical entomologists and other scientists at UC Davis are planning a Malaria Awareness Day from 10 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. on Monday, April 25 in the Memorial Union.

The event will take place in MU II (second floor) and is free and open to the public.

It's being held "to increase awareness among the general public about malaria, one of the world's oldest and deadliest diseases, as well as vector-borne problems at home in California," said medical entomologist Gregory Lanzaro, professor in the Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

Statistics from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) tell the alarming story.

"It is a leading cause of death and disease in many developing countries, where young children and pregnant women are the groups most affected," the CDC points out, citing these figures from the World Health Organization's World Malaria Report 2013 and the Global Malaria Action Plan:

• 3.4 billion people (half the world's population) live in areas at risk of malaria transmission in 106 countries and territories
• In 2012, malaria caused an estimated 207 million clinical episodes, and 627,000 deaths. An estimated 91% of deaths in 2010 were in the African Region.

The most vulnerable groups, CDC says, are young children, who have not yet developed partial immunity to malaria; pregnant woman, whose immunity is decreased by pregnancy, especially during the first and second pregnancies; and travelers or migrants coming from areas with little or no malaria transmission, who lack immunity.

Africa, according to CDC, is the most affected due to a combination of factors:

• A very efficient mosquito (Anopheles gambiae complex) is responsible for high transmission.
• The predominant parasite species is Plasmodium falciparum, which is the species that is most likely to cause severe malaria and death.
• Local weather conditions often allow transmission to occur year round.
• Scarce resources and socio-economic instability have hindered efficient malaria control activities.

The schedule for the UC Davis Malaria Awareness Day:

10 to 10:30 am.: Coffee/social/posters

10:30 to 10:50: "General Malaria Biology" by medical entomologist Gregory Lanzaro, professor, Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology, UC Davis School of Veterinary Medicine.

10:50 to 11:20: Conducting Field Research in Rural Africa" by medical entomologist Anthony Cornel, associate professor,  UC Davis Department of Entomology and Nematology and based at the UC Kearney Agriculture and Research Center, Parlier

11:10 to 11:30: "Marlaria Parasites in the Mosquito" by molecular biologist Shirley Luckhart, professor, UC Davis Department of Medical Microbiology and Immunology and an adjunct professor in the Department of Entomology and Nematology

11:30 to 11:50: "Mosquito-Borne Viral Diseases" by medical entomologist Chris Barker, assistant adjunct professor and assistant research scientist, UC Davis Department of Pathology, Microbiology and Immunology

11:50 to 12:10: "Disease Transmission by Non-Mosquito Vectors" by epidemiologist/veterinarian and disease ecologist Janet Foley, professor, UC Davis Department of Medicine and Epidemiology

12:10 to 1:30: A free lunch will be provided, but reservations must be made by April 21 to ykyamasaki@ucdavis.edu.