Participating in the first scientific conference on “Biotechnology and Biomedicine Applications in Clinical Medicine”, MD Hoang Ha, Deputy Director of the DTU Institute for Research and Training in Medicine, Biology, and Pharmacy, won a second prize for his paper entitled: “Plasmodium knowlesi malaria parasite transmission from monkeys to humans in the Vietnam-Laos border area”. It was one of the twelve best reports selected from over a hundred scientific research works submitted for the conference.
MD Hoang Ha speaking at the conference
The first scientific conference on “Biotechnology and Biomedicine Applications in Clinical Medicine” was held on March 29 and 30 by the Ho Chi Minh City Youth Union Center for the Development of Young Science and Technology in collaboration with the 7A Military Hospital and the Biotechnology Center of Ho Chi Minh City to provide scientists with an opportunity for academic exchange on the current state of biotechnology and biomedicine applications to clinical medicine in Vietnam. Forty high-quality papers were selected for inclusion in the conference proceedings to be issued by Science and Technics Publishing House, and the twelve best among them were presented at the conference.
Through many years of research, MD Hoang Ha started to clearly recognize the serious threat malaria poses to the minorities in the border area in the Mekong river subregion. The main cause of malaria in Vietnam has always been the Plasmodium falciparum and the Plasmodium vivax parasites. In 2007, scientists detected the new parasite species Plasmodium knowlesi for the first time in Ninh Thuan, Vietnam. Immediately after this, MD Hoang Ha found that Plasmodium knowlesi also occurs in the border area between Quang Tri in Vietnam and Savannakhet in Laos.
Recognition of MD Hoang Ha’s research at the conference
MD Hoang Ha rapidly executed a cross-sectional survey into the ratio of malarial parasites among the Vietnam-Laos border communities. Blood samples collected in Savannakhet in Laos and Quang Tri in Vietnam from August to October 2010 were tested, and the new Plasmodium knowlesi parasite was found. MD Hoang Ha applied polymerase chain reaction (PCR) to the 18S ribosomal RNA gene and the sporozoite cycle protein gene to determine the Plasmodium species, with many results.
The paper met with a positive response at the conference, as the first detection of the Plasmodium knowlesi parasite in the region between the Laotian Savannakhet province and the Vietnamese Quang Tri province and the discovery of its rapid spread near the border by MD Hoang Ha and his Japanese and Laotian colleagues pose a major challenge to the prevention of transmission of the parasite from monkeys to humans and will play an important role in the national malaria prevention efforts of both countries.
“We highly value that the Medical Committee Netherlands Vietnam and several Japanese universities supported us financially and with the analysis to identify the Plasmodium knowlesi malarial parasite species,” MD Hoang Ha said when looking back on his research. “Furthermore, the enthusiastic support we got from the people at the Quang Tri Preventive Medical Center in Vietnam and the Savannakhet Provincial Malaria Station in Laos in addition to many volunteers allowed us to successfully complete our research. This research has huge significance for understanding the spread of a dangerous parasite, for determining disease incidence, and for malaria prevention. It furthermore improves the friendship and scientific research collaboration between Vietnam, Laos, and Japan."
“I hope to return to this region to research several diseases transmitted through the border and the current occurrence of this species of malarial parasite. I also intend to use molecular biology techniques to investigate early detection and diagnosis of these diseases. I hope my research will be useful for medicine in Vietnam and in other countries.”
(Media Center)