As part of our “Meet Yale Internal Medicine” series, today’s feature is on Mahalia S. Desruisseaux, MD, associate professor (infectious diseases).
Struck by the deficits that cerebral malaria can cause, Mahalia S. Desruisseaux, MD, built her career around studying the disease. Malaria is an infection caused by a parasite which is spread by mosquitoes. Cerebral malaria is one of the most dangerous manifestations.
“If not treated, cerebral malaria can be fatal, but even with treatment, the mortality is still 20 percent of those infected,” explained Desruisseaux. “What really strikes me is that in some children who have been successfully treated for the disease, there can still be a lot of memory impairment, learning disabilities, and attention deficit issues that can't be explained.”
Pregnant women, young children, immuno-suppressed people, older people, and travelers to endemic regions can be more susceptible to this form of disease.
In Desruisseaux’s lab, she and her team use a mouse model to reproduce these neuro-psychiatric illnesses in the hope to understand what causes them and to determine the “point of no return.”
“Experts in the field debate on what is more important, preventing transmission or creating adjunctive treatment that targets severe disease, since it affects only 1 – 2 percent of those infected,” said Desruisseaux. “A lot of work has been done to decrease transmission like insecticide-coated bed nets. If you look at the World Health Organization literature, the incidence of malaria has gone down substantially since 2010, as has mortality. However, there has been an uptick in the number of cases since 2015, and consequently the percentage of people that die from malaria has plateaued during that time. My goal is to eventually efface the adverse consequences of severe disease, including mortality.”
She hopes that what she learns in the lab will translate to human disease and can be used for therapeutic purposes.
Along with her research, Desruisseaux treats patients on the infectious disease consultation service at Yale New Haven Hospital. She knew at a very young age that she wanted to be a physician. As a child in Haiti, she recalls being sick often and loved visiting the doctor’s office. Her family moved from Haiti to New York in the mid-1980s where she resided for most of her life until coming to New Haven, Conn.
“The first thing that I noticed at Yale was that everyone was so collegial,” she said. “When I started on the faculty, I realized that it wasn’t an act. People here are genuinely nice and want to collaborate. That is one of the main reasons I like this place.”
Not that people were mean at the other places she worked, Desruisseaux explained. But they weren’t “New Haven nice.”
During her residency, she was split between the specialties of cardiovascular medicine or infectious diseases. She knew that she wanted to treat a patient who was acutely ill and cure that issue and loved that no matter how much you think you know, there is always something new to learn with infectious diseases.
She is slated for 50 percent research based on her faculty track but loves being a clinician. She is working to become the best clinician and investigator she can be. Seeing how much she’s poured herself into cerebral malaria research, there is no doubt that she will excel in both areas.
To learn more about the work within Yale’s Section of Infectious Diseases, visit Infectious Diseases.