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December 5, 2007

Fulbright scholar studies malaria

James Coburn

EDMOND — Death haunts millions of children each year with malaria. Lindsey Turnbull hopes to provide a healthy future for these children. She has spent the past 16 months researching malaria in England and sub-Saharan Africa.

The 2002 Edmond Memorial High School graduate earned a bachelor degree in biochemistry from Knox College in Illinois before spending six months at Oxford studying malaria genetics.

Malaria is a parasite infecting humans and mosquitoes. Indigenous to tropical regions of the world, humans contract malaria when bitten by mosquitoes carrying the parasite. More than 1 million children die each year from malaria.

The disease should be treated early in its infection before reaching its potential of being deadly, according to the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention.

“Common symptoms include fever and chills and very sore headache,” Turnbull said.

The remainder of her research had a different approach from her Oxford investigation. Turnbull traveled to the small African country of Malawi as a Fulbright Fellow, researching the biology and disease process of malaria in children.

“I was able to interact directly with pediatric patients on the ward and study the features of their parasites by growing them for testing in the laboratory,” she said.

In Malawi, Turnbull found that children with large amounts of red blood cells with more than one parasite per red blood cell become more ill than children who have red blood cells infected with only one parasite.

The magnitude of her research is more thorough than previous studies by other scientists, she said. In Philadelphia, Turnbull presented her findings in November to the international scientific community in a lecture at the annual meeting of The American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.

Research remains to be done by Turnbull. “We want to determine whether multiple parasites in the cell is due to multiple factors in the patient or whether it’s something inherent in the parasite,” she said.

However, she is $6,500 short of her fundraising goal for money to make her return trip to Malawi possible.

“The Blantyre Malaria Project has generously agreed to provide laboratory space, supplies and their expertise at no cost,” she said. “Thus, I only need to provide for travel and subsistence.”

Turnbull said a donation of any size will help her goal of eradicating malaria worldwide.

“What’s most important to me is that malaria has been around for tens of thousands of years and continuing research is vital to being able to eradicate malaria and prevent millions of deaths of small children,” she said.

jcoburn@edmondsun.com | 341-2121, ext. 114

The Details

What you need to know

For more information about malaria, go to the Centers for Disease and Prevention Web site at www.cdc.gov/malaria/faq.htm. To learn more about Lindsey Turnbull’s fundraising efforts to combat malaria, contact her at (231) 590-6873 or by e-mail at lturnbull@gmail.com.

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