According the Center for Disease Control, each year nearly 1,500 people are diagnosed with malaria in this country, mostly in travelers returning from high risk zones. Every year, millions of people from the United States travel to malaria endemic regions, especially sub-Saharan Africa, and put themselves at risk to the disease. Once infected, individuals can suffer from high fever, headache, anemia, and inflammation of the spleen. Those who develop cerebral malaria, when the disease attacks the brain, commonly suffer from insanity, unconsciousness and, often, death.
Yet people living within developed countries have the privilege of convenient access to anti-malaria drugs and vaccinations. A prospective traveler in the US can substantially lower his or her risk of contracting the disease by visiting a travel clinic and receiving a malaria vaccination that builds immunity against it. Not all countries benefit from these life-saving immunizations.
It is likely that malaria has killed more people worldwide, especially children, than any other infectious disease. The World Health Organization reports that over 40% of the world’s population lives in malaria zones. Every year 300-500 million people are affected by it, including one million children under the age of 6 that die of it every year. The disease can have devastating effects on individuals and communities badly affected by it, with sometimes severe political and economic ramifications. But do local peoples, with little to no access to anti-malaria vaccinations or travel clinic, have defenses against malaria infection?
An interesting aspect of microevoultion theory is how it explains the existence of certain heritable yet terminal diseases that refuse to be naturally weeded out of human populations. Skeptics of Darwin ponder how evolutionary theory by means of natural selection supports itself in cases like sickle-cell anemia, which creates abnormal hemoglobin that in turn misshapens and injures red blood cells, preventing them from adequately carrying oxygen from the lungs to the rest of the body. Why hasn’t this unfavorable trait been naturally selected out of populations? And which population can benefit from malaria prevention NYC?
One important marvel is how people that are heterozygous for sick cell anemia, meaning they carry one allele of it by mean of their mother or father, actually have strong survival genes against malaria. The explanation is surprisingly simple: The malaria virus attacks the host by invading its red blood cells where it replicates and spreads by infecting other red blood cells. But individuals who are heterozygous for Sickle Cell Anemia do not have enough healthy red blood cells for the virus to infect and grow in, thus inhibiting malaria to grow strong and overtake host. Thus is it an advantage for people living in malaria endemic regions to be heterozygote for Sickle Cell Anemia, granting it as a favorable trait to be passed on to future generations.
And it has, with sickle cell carrier frequencies at almost 40% in some African populations, where malaria has thrived for thousands of years. You’ll see similar statistics in Middle Eastern, Mediterranean, and Indian populations where malaria resides. Microevolution theory gives us a fascinating example of how individuals within these populations have survived malaria environments with the aid of a usually life-threatening disease.
Yet most Americans have not developed this advantage, and need to get a malaria vaccination before entering any of these countries. If you live in or nearby NYC, visit this travel doctor NYC located in Midtown. It sits in between 39th and 40th street, just two blocks from the Bryant Park and Grand Central transit locations. The staff will answer all your concerns and offer expertise advise about maintaining your health while your abroad. Call 212-696-5900 or visit Travel Clinic New York to make an appointment.
When you lack the evolutionary advantages, let modern medicine pick up the slack. Take advantage of travel vaccinations.
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