Human and rodent malaria link

Scientists have discovered similarities between rat and human malaria, according to a report in a biology journal.

Previously, only a strain found in chimpanzees had been linked to human malaria, but investigators at the Sackler Institute for Comparative Genomics and the American Museum of Natural History have discovered otherwise.

Assistant Curator of invertebrate Zoology at the Museum Susan Perkins looked into malarial parasites in African thicket rats.

The results were surprising because the type of parasite in rats is the most common laboratory model for human malarial research.

Ms Perkins said: "Our laboratory models might be more powerful for helping to study how to fight the disease."

The researcher has unpublished findings associating malaria in bats to humans, which could provide further evidence which has linked diseases like Ebola and SARs in the past.

Malaria is transmitted to humans via the bites of infected mosquitoes and attacks red blood cells after multiplying in the liver.

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