Kuala Lumpur A Malaysian prince is promoting a novel weapon against the worsening scourge of dengue fever: a protein “pill” that starves mosquito larvae and could revolutionise the global dengue fight.
It is a fight that is intensifying: more than 2.5 billion people - about 40 per cent of Earth’s population - live in areas susceptible to the mosquito-borne virus, with up to 100 million infected annually, according to the World Health Organisation.
Dengue kills 20,000 people worldwide every year, and its complexity - and what health advocates say is a lack of priority given the race to find cures for higher profile viruses such as AIDS - means a vaccine has proved elusive.
It is mainly transmitted to humans by the aedes aegypti mosquito, and causes symptoms including high fever, body aches, rashes and heavy fatigue. In severe cases, white blood cells drop to potentially fatal levels.
Enter Prince Naquiyuddin Jaafar, one of the most popular members of Malaysia’s nobility, whose anti-dengue technology targets the offspring of mosquitoes in a bid to win the battle against the virus-spreading pest.
A former diplomat and son of Malaysia’s past king, Naquiyuddin, 65, has been involved in a wide range of philanthropic and charitable pursuits, but dengue has been a particular passion.
It is a growing problem in Malaysia, where cases surged 22 per cent to 6,141 from January to March this year, with 17 deaths. Just eight dengue deaths were reported for all of 2011.
Among Naquiyuddin’s diverse business activities is the biotech company he founded in 2007, EntoGenex, which has taken a pre-existing protein called the Trypsin Modulating Oostatic Factor, or TMOF, and developed it into what he calls a fatal “diet pill” for mosquitoes.
Naquiyuddin’s “pill” is now registered for use in Malaysia, Pakistan and the Philippines, while Ghana, South Africa, Cameroon and Sri Lanka are either conducting field trials or seeking approvals to use it.
He hopes it could potentially become a weapon in the even larger fight against malaria, which kills an estimated 650,000 people per year.
More than $5 billion (Dh18.3 million) is needed annually to control malaria but only $1.8 billion is being put into the fight, according to Roll Back Malaria, a group that carries out global anti-malaria campaigns.
The pill, which costs about one-eighth the price of manufacturing conventional neurotoxins like DDT, will lower costs dramatically, said Naquiyuddin.
“We are offering a cheaper and much healthier alternative to fighting dengue and malaria, and this is why we are in the business: to improve the quality of life of people, while helping to solve a major health threat,” he said.
“If it means my wife and family will never again have to worry about dengue, then I urge the government and businesses to help make it available to everyone,” said Ahmad Ismail, 47.
A recent field trial in the suburb where he lives north of the capital Kuala Lumpur caused dengue cases to disappear, said Ahmad, an engineer whose wife was struck down with the virus just months before the trial. She later recovered.
