Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

Driving in the mid-lane helps pensioners stay safe

It's official: older adults are naturally inclined to drive in the middle of the road, leaving the younger generation to cut corners. This tendency to sit mid-lane is an in-built safety mechanism that helps pensioners stay safe behind the wheel, according to researchers at the University of Leeds, UK.

5 Jan 2012

BBC examines eastern DRC's battle with malaria

A BBC News article and related video examine the eastern Democratic Republic of Congo's battle with malaria. "'Malaria is the main killer here in Congo, especially for pregnant women and children,' says Dr. Vincker Lushombo, from Save the Children," BBC writes.

5 Jan 2012

Foreign aid to MICs needs 'more sophisticated approach' instead of cuts

"[T]he E.U., the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, TB and Malaria, and the World Bank's International Development Association ... want to save money during a fiscal crunch by cutting off aid to middle-income countries (MIC)," Andy Sumner and Amanda Glassman of the Center for Global Development write in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog."

4 Jan 2012

Individuals with diverse skin microbiota at lower risk of contracting malaria

The microbes on your skin determine how attractive you are to mosquitoes, which may have important implications for malaria transmission and prevention, according to a study published Dec. 28 in the online journal PLoS ONE.

29 Dec 2011

MSF publishes list of top 10 stories of 2011 about access to medicine

This Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) special report highlights the top 10 stories of 2011 regarding access to essential medicines, according to MSF.

23 Dec 2011

WHO researchers release critique of methods to estimate global malaria incidence

"Richard Cibulskis and colleagues at the WHO in Geneva, Switzerland present a critique of different estimation methods of the worldwide incidence of malaria in this week's PLoS Medicine," according to a post in the PLoS Medicine "Community Blog."

23 Dec 2011

'Dramatic gains' in fight against malaria in jeopardy due to Global Fund shortfall

In this post on the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog, Kent Campbell, director of the Malaria Control Program at PATH, says "dramatic gains" made in the fight against malaria, and the possibility of ending the disease, are in jeopardy because the "Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, which provides two-thirds of the global financing for efforts to combat malaria, is facing a financial crisis due to unfulfilled donor commitments."

23 Dec 2011

Government, humanitarian agencies respond to flooding in Philippines, warn of disease threat

"Philippine authorities are warning of the spread of diseases in cramped evacuation centers, days after flash floods hit the southern Philippines and claimed more than a thousand lives," ABC/Asia Pacific News reports, noting that flooding also has affected the country's northern provinces, displacing at least 50,000 people.

22 Dec 2011

Leishmania parasite develops combined resistance against drug, human immune system

Scientists of the Institute of Tropical Medicine (ITG) discovered a parasite that not only had developed resistance against a common medicine, but at the same time had become better in withstanding the human immune system.

22 Dec 2011

Malaria vaccine shows early success

An experimental vaccine for malaria has been developed by British scientists. It has shown early potential to neutralize many, perhaps all, strains of the deadliest malaria parasite.

21 Dec 2011

Global Fund Board must 'sound alarm' to renew funding commitments

In an opinion piece on the Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) website, MSF International President Unni Karunakara writes that with the cancellation of the Global Fund To Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria's Round 11 grants, "The Board of the Global Fund must raise the alarm. Instead of accepting rationing, and cancelling ambitions, we urge the Global Fund Board to organize an emergency donor conference to renew commitment and allow countries where the diseases are endemic to apply for funding in 2012."

21 Dec 2011

University of Oxford scientists develop new candidate malaria vaccine

A new candidate malaria vaccine with the potential to neutralise all strains of the most deadly species of malaria parasite has been developed by a team led by scientists at the University of Oxford.

21 Dec 2011

SCYNEXIS, MMV assemble Malaria Box of 400 compounds with antimalarial activity

In a bid to catalyse malaria and neglected disease drug discovery, MMV and SCYNEXIS, Inc. have assembled a Malaria Box of 400 carefully selected commercially available compounds with antimalarial activity and will provide it to researchers at no cost.

20 Dec 2011

Study examines relationship between malaria, salmonella infection

People with malaria are more prone to developing bacterial infections, particularly from salmonella, and "researchers at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine [LSHTM] have discovered that the increased vulnerability to salmonella infections is a side effect of the body's attempts to protect itself from the damaging effects of the malaria infection," according to an LSHTM press release.

20 Dec 2011

Three-dose artesunate therapy effective in treating children with malaria

A shorter anti-malaria treatment is as effective in treating seriously ill children as the standard regimen, according to new research. Researchers have shown that three doses over two days of the drug artesunate are as effective in killing the malaria parasite in the blood as five doses over three days.

20 Dec 2011

OneWorld Health to become PATH affiliate

"PATH and OneWorld Health (OWH) on Friday announced that OWH will become an affiliate of PATH, bringing its drug development expertise and experience in neglected infectious diseases to bear on PATH's mission of improving global health through innovation," according to a PATH press release.

20 Dec 2011

Yissum introduces novel technology for manufacturing an anti-malaria drug in tobacco

Combating malaria is one of the eight Millennium Development Goals described in the United Nations Millennium Declaration signed by all UN members at the year 2000. A key intervention to control malaria is prompt and effective treatment with artemisinin-based combination therapies.

19 Dec 2011

Affordable artemisinin using tobacco plants

19 Dec 2011

Link between malaria and salmonella infections

The link between malaria and salmonella infections has been explained for the first time, opening the way to more effective treatments.

19 Dec 2011

A call for continued investment in global health, development

In this Politico opinion piece, former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.), who chairs the non-profit Hope Through Healing Hands, writes, "Continued investment in the fight to end global AIDS is more than an investment in the lives of families and communities in developing nations -- it is an investment in security, diplomacy and our moral image worldwide."

17 Dec 2011