Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

UNEP should work to bring about safe alternatives to DDT for malaria vector control

Some countries in Africa "still rely on dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (DDT) for malaria vector control," therefore "[i]t is ... problematic that the U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP), without the consent of member states, and violating its own treaties, exerts relentless pressure to ban DDT globally," Richard Tren, director of Africa Fighting Malaria, and Richard Nchabi Kamwi, Nambia's minister of health and social services, write in a BMJ opinion piece.

12 Oct 2012

Examining funding for TB treatment in Europe

In a BMJ Group Blogs post, Caroline Robinson, global health advocacy manager for Results U.K., discusses the prevalence and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) and drug-resistant TB in Europe and provides the example of Romania.

11 Oct 2012

Genocea raises $30M in Series C financing round

Genocea Biosciences, Inc., a clinical-stage company advancing innovative T cell vaccines for infectious diseases, has raised $30 million in a Series C financing round.

10 Oct 2012

Letters to U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator address global AIDS blueprint

The Center for Global Health Policy's "Science Speaks" blog reports on a letter sent by 12 organizations and institutions to U.S. Global AIDS Coordinator Ambassador Eric Goosby, detailing the ways a U.S. global AIDS blueprint, proposed by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during the XIX International AIDS Conference in July, can address the concerns of key populations, such as injection drug users and men who have sex with men.

10 Oct 2012

IspH protein accepts two completely different classes of molecules as partners

The iron-sulfur protein IspH plays a central role in the terpene metabolism of several pathogens. The mechanism of the reaction provides an approach for developing new antibiotics, particularly against malaria and tuberculosis. While researching this enzyme, biochemists at the Technische Universitat Munchen discovered a previously unknown reaction: IspH accepts two completely different classes of molecules as partners.

10 Oct 2012

Harvard announces ExxonMobil Malaria Scholar in Residence

The Harvard School of Public Health announced on Thursday that Regina Rabinovich, former director of infectious diseases at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, has been chosen to be the ExxonMobil Malaria Scholar in Residence, "where she will focus on innovative strategies to combat malaria," according to a Harvard press release.

8 Oct 2012

MSH president talks about health systems innovation in Devex interviews

Devex features three video segments from an interview with Jonathan Quick, president and CEO of Management Sciences for Health (MSH), in which he discusses health systems innovation and the challenge of addressing non-communicable diseases.

6 Oct 2012

Perplexing evolutionary history of malaria transmitting mosquito species

An African mosquito species with a deadly capacity to transmit malaria has a perplexing evolutionary history, according to discovery by researchers at the Fralin Life Science Institute at Virginia Tech.

6 Oct 2012

Combination pill to treat malaria pre-approved by WHO

"A malaria drug made by India's Cipla has been pre-qualified by the World Health Organization (WHO), an important step towards its roll-out across Asia, where millions of people are infected with the mosquito-borne disease every year," Reuters reports.

6 Oct 2012

Nature examines future of AMFm

"Although no official decision has been announced about whether to continue the ... Affordable Medicines Facility-Malaria (AMFm), many of those familiar with it have told Nature that it must change or be phased out after this year," the magazine reports in an article examining the future of the pilot program that distributes malaria drugs in seven African countries.

4 Oct 2012

Zimbabwe set to attain 'universal' ARV coverage

"Zimbabwe is set to attain 'universal' coverage for AIDS treatment thanks in part to an $84 million disbursement on Tuesday by the United Nations-backed Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria," the U.N. News Centre reports.

4 Oct 2012

Obama should promote, invest more in PMI to gain votes

Leading up to the debates this month and the November presidential election, "President Obama would be wise to talk up our effective aid programs and the soft power they provide with regional allies," particularly the U.S. President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), Roger Bate, a resident scholar with the American Enterprise Institute, and Kimberly Hess, a researcher with Africa Fighting Malaria, write in a New York Daily News opinion piece.

4 Oct 2012

Blog assesses key elements of Global Fund's new funding model

In an article on the International HIV/AIDS Alliance's webpage, the organization compares a new funding model adopted by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to its own "key principles" and "outline[s] how civil society is involved in refining the process of how money will be allocated."

4 Oct 2012

Advocacy group's aid transparency index shows more openness but room for improvement

"As a major international deadline on foreign assistance transparency draws closer, a new index shows that while donors are becoming more open with their data, still less than half of foreign aid information is openly available," Inter Press Service reports.

4 Oct 2012

IRIN examines allegations of Global Fund grant misuse in Uganda

IRIN reports on allegations that a grant from the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria to Uganda was misused. "Evidence of the mismanagement of a $51 million malaria grant to Uganda from the Global Fund resulted in the July arrest of three Ministry of Health employees and prompted a police investigation into the matter," the news service writes.

3 Oct 2012

Chloroquine begins to work against malaria

Malaria-drug monitoring over the past 30 years has shown that malaria parasites develop resistance to medicine, and the first signs of resistance to the newest drugs have just been observed. At the same time, resistance monitoring at the University of Copenhagen shows that the previously efficacious drug chloroquine is once again beginning to work against malaria. In time that will ensure cheaper treatment for the world's poor.

3 Oct 2012

Global Research Nurses to launch this week in Malawi

Today sees the launch of Global Research Nurses, a new interactive network which allows nurses around the world to become a leading voice in global health research.

3 Oct 2012

IPS examines debate over impact of climate change on health

"More intense rainfall, rising temperatures and climate-driven migration of human and animal populations due to repeated drought all affect the spread of tropical diseases," Inter Press Service writes in an article examining the impact of climate change on health, a topic that "generated debate among the experts attending the 18th International Congress on Tropical Medicine and Malaria, held Sept. 23-27 in Rio de Janeiro."

2 Oct 2012

Researchers track spread of human invasive non-Typhoidal Salmonella in sub-Saharan Africa

A new study out today (Sunday 30 September) reveals that the emergence and spread of a rapidly evolving invasive intestinal disease, that has a significant mortality rate (up to 45%) in infected people in sub-Saharan Africa, seems to have been potentiated by the HIV epidemic in Africa.

1 Oct 2012

WHO urges action to stop spread of drug-resistant malaria in Vietnam, Myanmar

"The World Health Organization said Thursday that governments in the Mekong region must act 'urgently' to stop the spread of drug-resistant malaria which has emerged in parts of Vietnam and Myanmar," Agence France-Presse reports.

29 Sep 2012