Biotechnology Unit, Faculty of Science, University of Buea, P,O, Box 63, Buea, South West Region, Cameroon.
Infect Dis Poverty. 2014 Jan 8;3(1):1. doi: 10.1186/2049-9957-3-1.
Vector-borne protozoan diseases represent a serious public health challenge, especially in the tropics where poverty together with vector-favorable climates are the aggravating factors. Each of the various strategies currently employed to face these scourges is seriously inadequate. Despite enormous efforts, vaccines-which represent the ideal weapon against these parasitic diseases-are yet to be sufficiently developed and implemented. Chemotherapy and vector control are therefore the sole effective attempts to minimize the disease burden. Nowadays, both strategies are also highly challenged by the phenomenon of drug and insecticide resistance, which affects virtually all interventions currently used. The recently growing support from international organizations and governments of some endemic countries is warmly welcome, and should be optimally exploited in the various approaches to drug and insecticide research and development to overcome the burden of these prevalent diseases, especially malaria, leishmaniasis, Human African Trypanosomiasis (HAT), and Chagas disease.
虫媒原生动物病是一项严重的公共卫生挑战，尤其是在热带地区，那里的贫困和有利于媒介生存的气候是加剧这些疾病的因素。目前用于应对这些疾病的各种策略都严重不足。尽管做出了巨大努力，但疫苗——这是对抗这些寄生虫病的理想武器——仍未得到充分开发和实施。因此，化疗和病媒控制是减轻疾病负担的唯一有效尝试。如今，药物和杀虫剂耐药性现象几乎影响到所有现有干预措施，这使得这两种策略也受到了严重挑战。最近，一些流行国家的国际组织和政府提供了更多的支持，这受到了热烈欢迎，应该在药物和杀虫剂的研发的各种方法中得到最佳利用，以克服这些流行疾病的负担，特别是疟疾、利什曼病、非洲人类锥虫病（HAT）和恰加斯病。
