There are an estimated over 200 million yearly cases of malaria worldwide. Despite concerted international effort to combat the disease, it still causes approximately half a million deaths every year, the majority of which are young children with Plasmodium falciparum infection in sub‐Saharan Africa. Successes are largely attributed to malaria prevention strategies, such as insecticide‐treated mosquito nets and indoor spraying, as well as improved access to existing treatments. One important hurdle to new approaches for the treatment and prevention of malaria is our limited understanding of the biology of Plasmodium infection and its complex interaction with the immune system of its human host. Therefore, the elimination of malaria in Africa not only relies on existing tools to reduce malaria burden, but also requires fundamental research to develop innovative approaches. Here, we summarize our discoveries from investigations of ethnic groups of West Africa who have different susceptibility to malaria.

中文翻译：

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对自然接触疟疾的富拉尼人的研究将教给我们什么关于疟疾的保护性免疫力？

全世界每年估计有超过 2 亿疟疾病例。尽管国际社会齐心协力对抗这种疾病，但它每年仍导致大约 50 万人死亡，其中大多数是撒哈拉以南非洲感染恶性疟原虫的幼儿。成功主要归功于疟疾预防策略，例如经杀虫剂处理的蚊帐和室内喷洒，以及改善获得现有治疗的机会。治疗和预防疟疾的新方法的一个重要障碍是我们对疟原虫生物学的了解有限感染及其与人类宿主免疫系统的复杂相互作用。因此，在非洲消除疟疾不仅依赖于现有的工具来减轻疟疾负担，还需要基础研究来开发创新方法。在这里，我们总结了我们对西非对疟疾具有不同易感性的族群的调查发现。