Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

The Millennium Village Project: a correction

Paul Pronyk, lead author of the Millennium Village paper, releases the following statement about the paper, Pronyk PM, Muniz M, Nemser B, et al, for the Millennium Villages Study Group. The effect of an integrated multisector model for achieving the Millennium Development Goals and improving child survival in rural sub-Saharan Africa: a non-randomised controlled assessment. Lancet 2012; published online May 8. DOI:10.1016/S0140-6736(12)60207-4.

18 May 2012

Inovio SynCon avian influenza vaccine demonstrates broad coverage

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. announced today that its SynCon avian influenza vaccine generated protective HAI titers against six different unmatched strains of H5N1 in a phase I clinical trial - a distinct clinical achievement on Inovio's path to develop universal influenza vaccines.

17 May 2012

Insecticide resistance threatens malaria control efforts, WHO warns

"Malaria-carrying mosquitoes in Africa and India are becoming resistant to insecticides, putting millions of lives at greater risk and threatening eradication efforts, health experts said on Tuesday," Reuters report.

17 May 2012

MDG Health Alliance introduced at GBCHealth Conference

The MDG Health Alliance, an innovative new private sector organization created and led by eminent business leaders to tackle urgent global health problems, was introduced today in the United States at the GBCHealth Conference.

17 May 2012

U.S. support for Global Fund may be 'America's greatest global health legacy'

"This year marks the 10th anniversary of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, the world's most powerful tool in the fight against the three pandemics," Jonathan Klein, co-founder and CEO of Getty Images, Inc., writes in this post in the Huffington Post Blog.

17 May 2012

Treating prenatal maternal infections could improve birth outcomes, study suggests

Clinical trials are underway to test an azithromycin-based combination treatment for pregnant women, "which could tackle some of the leading preventable causes of death for babies in sub-Saharan Africa," according to researchers from the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine (LSHTM), who published a report on Wednesday in the Journal of the American Medical Association.

17 May 2012

Immediate response required to curb spread of artemisinin-resistant malaria in Burma

In this Wall Street Journal opinion piece, Jay Winsten, associate dean at the Harvard School of Public Health, and Trish Stroman, a principal at the Boston Consulting Group, examine "the emergence in Southeast Asia of malarial parasites resistant to artemisinin -- the current gold-standard drug for treating the disease," writing it "poses grave new challenges."

17 May 2012

U.S. HIV assistance through PEPFAR prevented 740,000 deaths between 2004-2008, study shows

"The lives of more than 740,000 people in nine African countries were saved between 2004 and 2008 by the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief [PEPFAR]," according to a study conducted by Stanford University School of Medicine researchers and published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA) on Wednesday, HealthDay News reports.

17 May 2012

Biologists engineer algae to produce potential candidates for malarial vaccine

Biologists at the University of California, San Diego have succeeded in engineering algae to produce potential candidates for a vaccine that would prevent transmission of the parasite that causes malaria, an achievement that could pave the way for the development of an inexpensive way to protect billions of people from one of the world's most prevalent and debilitating diseases. Initial proof-of-principle experiments suggest that such a vaccine could prevent malaria transmission.

17 May 2012

Dual prevalence of STIs/RTIs and malaria in pregnancy found among women in sub-Saharan Africa

A review of studies reporting estimates of the prevalence of sexually transmitted infections/reproductive tract infections (STIs/RTIs) and malaria over the past 20 years suggests that a considerable burden of malaria and STIs/RTIs exists among pregnant women attending antenatal (before birth) facilities in sub-Saharan Africa, according to a review and meta-analysis of previous studies published in the May 16 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on Global Health.

16 May 2012

Reuters examines use of statistics in public health ahead of WHO report

"Above all else, analyzing the state of the world's health -- be it by looking at obesity rates, cancer cases, malaria deaths, or HIV-free births -- requires decent statistics," Reuters reports in an article examining the use of statistics in public health ahead of the release of the WHO's World Health Statistics report.

16 May 2012

New insights into how body's innate immunity is triggered to create effective immune response

Singapore scientists from Bioprocessing Technology Institute (BTI) under the Agency of Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR) have for the first time, identified the molecular 'switch' that directly triggers the body's first line of defence against pathogens, more accurately known as the body's "innate immunity".

11 May 2012

U.S. investment in global health has been successful, deserves continued congressional support

"Over the next few weeks, appropriators will be engaged in the challenging task of evaluating U.S. foreign assistance funding, including how effectively Congress' global health investments are being used," Charles Lyons, president and CEO of the Elizabeth Glaser Pediatric AIDS Foundation; Molly Joel Coye, interim president and CEO of PATH; Carolyn Miles, president and CEO of Save the Children; and Richard Stearns, president of World Vision, write in this Roll Call opinion piece.

11 May 2012

MSF says additional resources needed to improve ART access in Burma

Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), the largest provider of antiretroviral treatment (ART) in Burma, also known as Myanmar, are calling for the gap between the need for and access to ART in the country to be closed, the Guardian reports.

11 May 2012

Nepalese government launches 'ambitious' plan to end malaria, IRIN reports

"The Nepalese government has launched an ambitious plan to curb the spread of malaria in high-risk parts of the country, where some 3,000 people were infected last year," IRIN reports. Through the program, which began on May 1 and "is the first nationwide push to end malaria," the "health ministry will distribute [anti-malarial] drugs at their local offices, and through their representatives in rural areas," IRIN writes.

11 May 2012

Examining the need for WHO today

Responding to an opinion piece published in Nature Medicine last week in which Tikki Pang, a visiting professor at the National University of Singapore and former director of research policy and cooperation at the WHO, and Laurie Garrett, a senior fellow for global health at the Council on Foreign Relations, argue the case for reforming and improving the WHO, KPLU's Tom Paulson writes in a post on KPLU 88.5's "Humanosphere" blog.

10 May 2012

Inovio first quarter total revenue decreases to $1.7 million

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2012.

10 May 2012

New insecticide-treated bodysuit can fight malaria

A Cornell University scientist and designer from Africa have together created a fashionable hooded bodysuit embedded at the molecular level with insecticides for warding off mosquitoes infected with malaria, a disease estimated to kill 655,000 people annually on the continent.

9 May 2012

Researchers develop potent new drug that can kill tumor cells

All cells have the ability to recycle unwanted or damaged proteins and reuse the building blocks as food. But cancer cells have ramped up the system, called autophagy, and rely on it to escape damage in the face of chemotherapy and other treatments. Now, researchers at the Perelman School of Medicine; the Abramson Cancer Center; and the School of Arts and Sciences, at the University of Pennsylvania, have developed a potent new drug that clogs up the recycling machinery and kills tumor cells in mouse models.

9 May 2012

Bumped kinase inhibitors may control malaria

Over 200 million people contract malaria each year, and according to the World Health Organization, an estimated 655,000 people died from malaria in 2010. Malaria is caused by the parasite Plasmodium, which is transmitted to humans through mosquito bites. More effective control of malaria will require the development of new tools to prevent new infections.

9 May 2012