HYDERABAD, AUG 17: A global meet on `Parasitic Diseases' is to be convened here from August 18 to discuss the drug design and development and vaccine design against malaria parasite.

Organised by the Indian Society for Parasitology (ISP), the five-day event will be attended by scientists from nearly eighty countries. Addressing newsmen here today, Dr Nandan Singh, secretary of the city chapter of Indian Medical Association, said the meet was being organised to celebrate the silver jubilee of the ISP and the centennial of the isolation of the malaria parasite.

The meet will be attended by 200 scientists from abroad and nearly 500 from the country. Of the six sessions during the seminar, one will be devoted malaria as a global scourge. The scientists will finalise strategies to develop methods to prevent the disease which has become rampant in the past few years with the parasite developing new resilient strains against modern drugs. Nandan pointed out that prevention methods should not only have least effect on humans and ensure the parasites do not develop resistance, but ought to be environment friendly too. In honour of Sir Ronald Ross, who discovered the parasite, the building at Begumpet where he worked on it is being renovated. The British High Commission has granted Rs 41 lakh for the purpose. The building would be inaugurated on August 20 by Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. A postal stamp will also be released on the same day. World Health Organisation South East Asia regional director Uton Rafi, Sir Ronald's grandson David Ross and Prof M G K Menon are among the prominent people slated to attend the meet. `Mosquito man', as Sir Ronald Ross was popularly known, had discovered the parasite here on August 19, 1897. Born in Almora, Ross was educated in India and received his medical degree in the United Kingdom. Ross chose to study malaria which was a major disease then.On August 19, when he was peering through his self-made microscope, Ross noticed that the mosquito had a swelling in its stomach. Dissection revealed larvae, which confirmed that the mosquitoes were the carriers of malaria parasite. Subsequently, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1902.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.