Genetic diversity in human malarial parasites of Khyber Agency Pakistan.

ABSTRACT

Malaria is wide spread in poor world and its burden has been assessed by the enumeration of malarial parasites in blood of patients. This study was designed to find a relationship between social structure, and spread of malaria in Khyber agency. The average parasite density was 2050 parasite/µl in Khyber Agency. Due to economic and social setup most of the people have habit of sleeping in open air thus playing role in high malaria prevalence and Plasmodium vivax remains the prevalent species. Genetic study performed on 110 Blood samples showed less genetic diversity for both Plasmodium vivax and Plasmodium falciparum. Eight alleles were distinguished both for Pvmsp 3α and Pvmsp 3ß in total of 20 and 39 amplified samples of P. vivax respectively. Out of 17 samples amplified for P. falciparum 11 showed genotype K1 and 10 for MAD at Pfmsp-1 while 14 alleles were identified for 3D7/1C and two for FC27 of corresponding families of Pfmsp-2 gene. This shows that Plasmodium parasites are not genetically diverse in Khyber agency.