Page 27 - Sphere No.27 (Sep 2010)

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Sphere
a series of partnerships, teaching and research
projects that will see Shantou University be-
come a full partner in Oxford University’s
Asia Research Network along with centres in
Vietnam and Thailand. Asia is a hotspot both
for infectious diseases and drug resistance –
that is, a build-up of resistance to drugs by
existing diseases.
Many of us think of diseases like malaria as
largely a thing of the past, whereas in fact malaria
still kills more than a million people worldwide
per year. A few years ago researchers thought they
had found a cure in the traditional Chinese herb
qinghaosu, internationally known as artemisinin,
which Professor Farrar himself refers to as “this
miracle drug”. Artemisinin has become the most
effective anti-malarial drug in the world.
However, recently scientists working under the
Li Ka Shing Foundation - University of Oxford
Global Health Programme discovered that in
Cambodia malarial parasites are evolving to resist
the drug. Now the Programme is engaged in
new battles: first to prevent artemisinin-resistant
malaria parasites from spreading beyond Cambo-
dia, and second, to reduce the parasite’s resistance
within Cambodia.
Beneficiaries of the
research (clockwise,
from left): children
in rural area of the
Mainland; medical
scientists working
in a biosafety lab in
Cambodia; and a child
receiving treatment in
Afghanistan.
This particular battle is about to be joined by
the academics and medical students of Shantou
University, who will work with Professor Farrar’s
team to study how exactly artemisinin has been
used over its 2,000-year history and extrapolate
facts relevant to the ongoing fight against malaria.
To mark the handover of the Li Ka Shing Foun-
dation’s second donation to the Global Health
Programme, Professor Andrew Hamilton, Vice-
Chancellor of the University of Oxford, came to
Hong Kong in May. Asked what the Global Health
Programme has achieved so far, he explained that
it has pioneered potential vaccines for tuber-
culosis, malaria and HIV, which are currently
in clinical trials. He was particularly proud of a
research project into swine flu and a programme
to find more effective ways to treat children living
in remote areas of the Mainland.
In conclusion, Professor Hamilton said, “Sir
Ka-shing Li has demonstrated a huge commit-
ment to improving health worldwide, and we
hope this new funding for research and teaching
will lead to improvements in combating many
infectious diseases, from emerging infectious dis-
eases, influenza, malaria and dengue to tuberculo-
sis and HIV.”