A recent story in Techpoint Africa is a good example of how the scourge of malaria is used to justify new technologies. ‘Sora raises $2.5 million additional seed to eradicate malaria in Africa with AI-powered drones’ by Bolu Abiodun discusses the fundraising by Japanese start-up Sora Technology, that uses drones (see picture) and artificial intelligence to fight infectious diseases, mainly malaria.
Through its flagship initiative, SORA Malaria Control, the company combines satellite data, drones, and AI models to predict outbreaks, analyse environments, and deploy targeted vector control interventions. The company uses AI to find and map mosquito breeding sites while also ranking which ones pose the highest risk. It is active in many African nations including Ghana, Sierra Leone, Benin, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Senegal, Kenya, and Mozambique. The fresh capital will be used to advance Sora’s AI-powered disease prediction tools, team expansion, and strengthen partnerships with governments and international health institutions. Sora has partnered with the World Health Organisation to support sustainable malaria control efforts in Mozambique.
And this week in MalariaWorld there are descriptions of many other projects linking funding to malaria and novel research and technologies. There is research linking malaria vaccines to Parkinson’s disease progression, $7M Gates support of more vaccine development, in-silico studies of Plasmodia invading erythrocytes, Automated microscopy for malaria diagnosis in a reference laboratory in nonendemic settings, Housing modifications for heat adaptation, thermal comfort and malaria vector control in rural African settlements, as well as he usual drug testing and other research studies.
There is one study looking at nutrition. ‘Essential Trace Elements and Their Impact on Immune Response and Disease Severity in Malaria Infection: A Systematic Review’ by Hanifian et al found that across human and experimental studies, malaria infection was consistently associated with reduced serum concentrations of iron, zinc, and magnesium. The full study is behind a paywall but in the abstract it is stated that zinc supplementation improved micronutrient status but showed limited impact on malaria incidence. They also found that plasma levels of sodium, magnesium, calcium, and zinc were significantly reduced in malaria patients.
Malaria is a disease of poverty and it is clear that malnutrition plays an important role in its occurrence and severity. This, rather than novel technologies, is the area where research will have the greatest impact at actually reducing the burden of the illness.