Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

Children's Surgical Centre offers no-cost surgery for children with frontoethmoidal meningoencephalocele

Frontoethmoidal meningoencephalocele is a type of facial malformation that is rarely seen in developed countries, but is quite common in many Southeast Asian countries, occurring in 1 of every 5,000 live births.

20 Nov 2010

New international guidelines launched to protect health workers against HIV, TB

Health workers are at the frontline in providing prevention, treatment and care for people living with HIV and TB throughout the world. They are at risk of occupational exposure to HIV and TB but often themselves lack adequate access to protection and treatment. To address this gap, new international guidelines are being launched today by the International Labour Organization, WHO and the Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS.

20 Nov 2010

One-third of malaria-endemic countries are complying with WHO malaria drug efficacy monitoring standards, report says

Thirty-four percent of malaria-endemic countries are complying with WHO guidelines to monitor artemisinin resistance within their borders, the agency said in a report on Thursday, CBS News reports (11/18). Reuters reports that artemisinin "is the best drug available against malaria, especially when used in artemisinin combination therapy (ACT), which combines it with other drugs that finish off the [malaria] parasite" (Nebehay, 11/18).

20 Nov 2010

Recent releases in Global Health

New This Week In The Kaiser Global Health Policy Tracker: The President's Malaria Initiative announced a new focus country and USAID released a new fact sheet on the agency's reform initiative. Kaiser's Policy Tracker provides a timely single reference point for the latest information on congressional and administration action on global health.

20 Nov 2010

U.S. falling short of its goals to improve access to clean water, sanitation worldwide, report says

The U.S. is falling short on its goal of improving conditions for the 2.6 billion people worldwide without access to clean water and sanitation despite the fact the Water for the Poor Act became law in 2005, according to a report released Thursday by the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), WaterAid, CARE and 11 other organization, Food Safety News reports.

19 Nov 2010

National monitoring essential for preventing emergence of malaria drug resistance

WHO is calling on countries to be increasingly vigilant in monitoring antimalarial drug efficacy in order to allow for early detection of artemisinin resistance.1 This is one among several conclusions of the Global report on antimalarial drug efficacy and drug resistance: 2000-2010, released today. The report is based on 1100 studies conducted by national malaria control programs and research institutes over the ten-year period.

19 Nov 2010

First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research kicks off in Switzerland

The First Global Symposium on Health Systems Research bringing together researchers, policymakers and donors kicked off in Montreux, Switzerland, on Tuesday, with some conference attendees calling for African leaders to do more to promote health progress in their countries, PANA/Afrique en ligne reports.

18 Nov 2010

Inovio achieves positive results in Phase I PENNVAX-B study for HIV

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. , a leader in the development of therapeutic and preventive vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced today that it has achieved high vaccine-induced response rates and strong magnitude of immune responses in its Phase I clinical study of PENNVAX-B, a DNA vaccine for the prevention of HIV infection.

18 Nov 2010

Study reveals true effects of malaria on African generations

Almost a third of cerebral malaria survivors developed epilepsy or other behavioral disorders in the most comprehensive study to date of the disease in African children, solidifying the link between malaria and neuropsychiatric disorders that affect hundreds of thousands of children.

17 Nov 2010

Chimerix’s lipid-conjugated drugs reduces nephrotoxicity: Study

Scientists from Chimerix, Inc. today presented in vitro data demonstrating that the company's lipid-conjugated drugs, CMX001 and CMX157, are not substrates for the human Organic Anion Transporters (hOATs) and thus have significantly reduced potential to cause nephrotoxicity via this mechanism.

17 Nov 2010

Swissmedic approves use of plasma components treated with Cerus' INTERCEPT Blood System

Cerus Corporation announced today that the Swiss regulatory body, Swissmedic, has approved the use of plasma components treated with Cerus' INTERCEPT Blood System.

17 Nov 2010

NPR reports on dengue vaccine progress

NPR's Shots blog examines progress in the search for a vaccine to protect against the dengue virus. WHO estimates that 2.5 billion people worldwide are at risk of getting dengue, and most of them are in Asia and Latin America, the blog writes.

16 Nov 2010

Inovio third quarter total revenue decreases from $3.6 million to $1.3 million

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc. today reported financial results for the quarter ended September 30, 2010.

15 Nov 2010

Report documents increase in R&D projects on developing world diseases

Drugmakers are now working on over 100 R&D projects designed to tackle diseases of the developing world and almost 80% of them are being carried out with non-industry partners, according to a report released on Wednesday by the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers & Associations (IFPMA).

15 Nov 2010

Pneumonia Report Card shows prevention, treatment tools not widely adopted in countries where disease kills most children

In advance of World Pneumonia Day, the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) on Thursday released a report card showing that pneumonia prevention and intervention targets are not being met in the 15 countries where three-quarters of deaths in children under age 5 from the disease occur each year, IRIN reports.

14 Nov 2010

Inovio to update HVTN 080 Phase I clinical study for HIV at HVTN Conference

Inovio Pharmaceuticals, Inc., a leader in the development of therapeutic and preventive vaccines against cancers and infectious diseases, announced today that Dr. Spyros Kalams will provide an update of interim immune responses and safety results from the HVTN 080 Phase I clinical study of Inovio's PENNVAX-B HIV DNA vaccine in a preventive setting.

12 Nov 2010

Urgent action needed to prevent and treat childhood pneumonia

A Pneumonia Report Card released today by the International Vaccine Access Center (IVAC) on behalf of the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia reveals where urgent efforts are needed to reach target levels of coverage for the life-saving interventions that can prevent, protect against and treat pneumonia in children.

12 Nov 2010

G20 summit opens in Seoul; development plan announcement expected

The world's biggest rich and emerging powers escalated a war of words over trade and currencies Thursday, as leaders opened a G20 summit [in Seoul, South Korea] struggling to iron out distortions that threaten global growth, Agence France-Presse reports in an article examining some of the major disputes.

11 Nov 2010

New insect control method can bring decline in malaria-bearing mosquitoes

Research carried out in Mali, West Africa, has demonstrated that a new, safe and uncomplicated insect control method, developed at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, can bring about a serious decline in malaria-bearing mosquitoes in afflicted regions in the world.

11 Nov 2010

Pevion announces positive results of PEV7 Phase I study for recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis

Pevion Biotech AG today announced positive preliminary results from a Phase I study of PEV7, the first vaccine against recurrent vulvovaginal candidiasis (RVVC).

11 Nov 2010