Scientists discover foetal malaria gene

Scientists have discovered a genetic mutation which enables first-born children to survive their mother's malaria.

While expectant mothers experience few symptoms with placental malaria – when the disease is transmitted via the blood stream – babies are often stillborn or underweight, according a report in the New Scientist.

Seattle malariologist Patrick Duffy co-led a study of 565 women in Tanzania and discovered 75 children with a particular type of genetic mutation were delivered alive.

Yet one in ten first babies with another version of the foetal gene, common in places without malaria, like the UK and the US, did not make it to term.

Children that were born were twice as likely to be born underweight.

An estimated 68 per cent of people in the US have the foetal gene and 88 per cent of Britons, which could put their children at risk of malaria.

In malaria endemic Tanzania, about a third of people have the mutation of this gene.

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"This is the first resistance gene identified for any infectious disease that functions in [the womb]," Patrick Duffy said.

Malaria is transmitted through mosquitoes and is most common during the rainy season, which is a larvae breeding ground.