Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

Guardian features fact pages on MDGs

The Guardian on Friday published fact pages on the eight Millennium Development Goals.

8 Aug 2011

Economic slowdown should not hamper global fund donations

With the new knowledge that providing antiretroviral treatment to people living with HIV would "contribut[e] to a sharp slowdown in the spread of the virus," "scaling up treatment now may prove to be the least expensive option if we want to bring this deadly pandemic, which still infects 1.8 million people every year, under control," Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria writes in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog."

6 Aug 2011

Lancet reports on Global Fund donors that have held back contributions

Several donors to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria "continue to hold back their contributions for this year … adding up to more than $500 million that the Global Fund had been counting on for this year out of a total budget of about $3 billion," the Lancet reports.

6 Aug 2011

Novel DNA sensing pathway linked to increased susceptibility to malaria

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have uncovered a novel DNA-sensing pathway important to the triggering of an innate immune response for malaria. Activation of this pathway appears to stimulate production of an overabundance of type-1 interferon by the immune system that may contribute to inflammation and fever in malaria patients and could play a part in susceptibility for the most common and lethal form of malaria known as plasmodium falciparum.

5 Aug 2011

Daily text messages to health workers improve proper malaria treatment administration, study shows

"Sending daily text message reminders to health workers can mean nearly 25 percent more children are properly treated for malaria, according to the results of a six-month trial conducted in Kenya" published Thursday in the Lancet, Reuters reports.

5 Aug 2011

Aggressive medication leads to growth of drug-resistant pathogens

New research raises troubling concerns about the use of aggressive drug therapies to treat a wide range of diseases such as MRSA, C. difficile, malaria, and even cancer.

4 Aug 2011

Reducing commodity costs for ARVs could mean providing treatment to millions more people

"Reducing commodity costs for antiretroviral drugs by a mere five to 10 percent can represent hundreds of millions of dollars in savings for the global community. In turn these savings translate into millions of more patients who can receive access to life-saving treatment," David de Ferranti, president of Results for Development Institute (R4D), and Kanika Bahl, managing director at R4D, write in a Huffington Post opinion piece.

3 Aug 2011

New report offers solution for improving health care distribution methods

Each year millions of children and adults in the world's poorest countries die from lack of access to medicine and health care. A new report from Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business and the George W. Bush Institute offers a solution for improving distribution methods for health care information, products and services.

2 Aug 2011

Wall Street Journal examines India's public health infrastructure

The Wall Street Journal and the newspaper's "India Real Time" blog published stories on Saturday examining India's health care system. "Indian government officials say the country's public health infrastructure is sorely deficient, but they argue it is improving because of several initiatives underway," the blog reports.

1 Aug 2011

Kenya Medical Services Minister to establish African Cancer Foundation

When Anyang' Nyong'o, Medical Services Minister of Kenya, returned cancer-free to his native land in March of this year, he made a commitment to the people of Kenya. "My experience is a wake-up call for us in Kenya," he proclaimed.

1 Aug 2011

Malaria No More, NASCAR champion partner to end mortality

NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion and driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford in the Sprint Cup Series, Carl Edwards is partnering with nonprofit organization Malaria No More to join the race to end malaria deaths.

30 Jul 2011

Physicians to provide high-quality care, training to medically underserved community

Today, the first class of Texas Children's Global Health Corps will depart Houston for assignment in Africa. This talented team of pediatricians and family doctors will provide medical care and treatment to thousands of children and families affected by serious or life-threatening medical conditions, including sickle cell disease, malaria, tuberculosis, malnutrition, cancer and HIV/AIDS.

30 Jul 2011

Sigma-Tau, Soligenix expand partnership to develop and commercialize orBec in Europe

Soligenix, Inc., a late-stage biopharmaceutical company, announces the expansion and amendment of its North American licensing partnership with Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for the development and commercialization of orBec into the European territory.

29 Jul 2011

Efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, NTDs should be integrated

"The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) produce a devastating level of chronic disability in sub-Saharan Africa, with some estimates suggesting that the NTD disease burden exceeds tuberculosis and is one-half that of malaria," Julie Noblick and Richard Skolnick of George Washington University and Peter Hotez of the Sabin Vaccine Institute write in a PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases editorial.

28 Jul 2011

Media outlets examine mobile phones' effect on health, development in Africa

PBS NewsHour examines how the Canadian organization MEDA is using text messages to track malaria supplies in local clinics and retailers in Tanzania. The piece includes a related video featuring a MEDA employee giving a tour of the program (Cheers, 7/22).

25 Jul 2011

African leaders must invest in malaria prevention

In a Daily Caller opinion piece, Richard Tren, director of Africa Fighting Malaria, highlights a finding in a recent malaria report that the U.S. government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation "were responsible for 85% of the steep increase in malaria funding between 2007 and 2009." But "[i]f 30 African heads of state were to give up their private jets, a fund of well over $500 million could be generated," Tren writes.

25 Jul 2011

Researchers characterise protein complex linked to malaria and toxoplasmosis

Maryse Lebrun, Research Director at Inserm, and her fellow researchers at the Laboratoire Dynamique des interactions membranaires normales et pathologiques, have characterised a protein complex that allows the agents that cause malaria and toxoplasmosis to infect host cells.

25 Jul 2011