Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

New strategy to eliminate and eradicate malaria unveiled

Marking its tenth anniversary year, the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) today unveiled a new strategy that sets the stage for an aggressive push targeting the long-term goal of eliminating and eradicating malaria

4 Nov 2009

News outlets examine first World Pneumonia Day

To mark the first World Pneumonia Day, Inter Press Service examines how vaccines and other strategies can be used to combat the disease, which kills more children under age 5 each year "than measles, malaria, and AIDS combined, according to the Global Coalition against Child Pneumonia."

4 Nov 2009

Malaria Conference addresses RTS,S vaccine, tools, treatment

On Tuesday at the 5th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Pan-African Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, scientists and global health experts focused on malaria eradication, Agence France-Presse reports. "Key among the strategies ... is the development of an effective anti-malaria vaccine, a project scientists have been researching since the late 80s. ... RTS,S is the most clinically advanced malaria vaccine so far, according to the Malaria Vaccine Initiative," the news service writes (11/3).

3 Nov 2009

Health affairs issue focuses on HIV/AIDS, NTDs

By 2031 developing countries could need an estimated $35 billion to fight HIV/AIDS - three times the amount currently spent, according to a Health Affairs study published Tuesday, the New York Times reports.

3 Nov 2009

Also in Global Health News: Breast cancer in developing world; Burkina Faso ITN distribution; diarrhea in people over age five; Gates Q&A

"International cancer specialists meet this week to plan an assault on a troubling increase of breast cancer in developing countries, where nearly two-thirds of women aren't diagnosed until it has spread through their bodies," the Associated Press reports. Researchers will also look at "some worrisome data" that suggests breast cancer affects "women, on average, about 10 years" earlier in developing countries than it does in the U.S. (Neergaard, 11/3).

3 Nov 2009

Challenges in global health: rising to meet them could save millions of lives, say experts

Responding to the HIV/AIDS pandemic and tackling so-called neglected tropical diseases are the focus of the November/December 2009 edition of Health Affairs. The articles, by leading global health experts from around the world, show that although these challenges differ dramatically, rising to meet them could save millions of lives.

3 Nov 2009

Efficacy trial of the world's most clinically advanced malaria vaccine candidate underway

A pivotal efficacy trial of RTS,S, the world's most clinically advanced malaria vaccine candidate, is now underway in seven African countries: Burkina Faso, Gabon, Ghana, Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique and Tanzania. The trial, which is expected to involve up to 16,000 children, is on schedule, with more than 5,000 children already enrolled, researchers announced Tuesday at the 5th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Pan-African Malaria Conference.

3 Nov 2009

Opinions: Obstetric fistula; malaria and climate change

In a New York Times opinion piece, columnist Nicholas Kristof examines a new plan to tackle obstetric fistula, "a childbirth injury, often suffered by a teenager in Africa or Asia whose pelvis is not fully grown." According to Kristof, "Just about the happiest thing that can happen to such a woman is an encounter with Dr. Lewis Wall, an ob-gyn at Washington University in St. Louis.

3 Nov 2009

Malaria conference begins in Nairobi, will highlight outlook for RTS,S experimental malaria vaccine

The 5th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Pan-African Conference "kicked off in Nairobi late Sunday with a call for substantial and sustained support for research to guide evidence-based policies and the development of new malaria tools, which together could save countless lives," Xinhua reports (11/2).

2 Nov 2009

Washington Post examines role of USAID's Richard Greene

As part of its ongoing "Federal Player of the Week" series with the Partnership for Public Service, the Washington Post examines the role of Richard Greene, the head of USAID's Office of Health, Infectious Diseases, and Nutrition in the Bureau of Global Health.

2 Nov 2009

Global health organizations observe World Pneumonia Day; urge governments to take steps to fight pneumonia

Nearly 100 leading global health organizations from around the world joined forces to recognize the first-annual World Pneumonia Day on November 2 and urge governments to take steps to fight pneumonia, the world’s leading killer of young children.

2 Nov 2009

ACTwatch data indicates low accessibility of artemisinin combination therapy

ACTwatch, a research project led by PSI, in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, released evidence today that indicates that artemisinin combination therapy, the most effective medicines for treating malaria, continue to have a significantly low presence on the market among populations considered to be most at risk.

2 Nov 2009

IVCC to launch new Malaria Decision Support System at MIM conference

IVCC will launch its new Malaria Decision Support System MDSS) at the 5th Pan-African Multilateral Initiative (MIM) conference in Nairobi, Kenya, 1-6 November 2009.

2 Nov 2009

GAA welcomes Obama's announcement to lift HIV travel ban

The Global AIDS Alliance welcomes President Obama's announcement today to lift the 22 year-old U.S. travel and immigration ban on those living with HIV/AIDS. GAA Executive Director Paul Zeitz said "We congratulate President Obama on his decision to end this unfounded and discriminatory policy. This is an important sign of U.S. leadership and commitment."

31 Oct 2009

Conference to address the need for gender specific diagnostic strategies for women

The 'Red Alert for Women's Hearts' conference, taking place on 5 November 2009, at the European Heart House, Sophia Antipolis, France, will address the subject of Women and CVD. The conference is jointly organised by the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and European Heart Network (EHN), as part of Work Package 6 of the EuroHeart project .

31 Oct 2009

New tools and interventions can help in eradicating malaria

Although malaria has been controlled in many local and regional populations, the permanent elimination of malaria parasites throughout the world remains an elusive goal, and the disease continues to claim nearly one million lives each year.

31 Oct 2009

Advocates call for increased U.S. investment in global health

A report released Thursday (.pdf) by a group of global health advocates outlines ways the U.S. can work toward increasing access to health care throughout the world, Inter Press Service reports. They call "for doubling U.S. aid to global health projects from the current level of nearly eight billion dollars a year to 16 billion by 2011," followed by "annual increase[s] leading to a six-year total investment of 95 billion dollars."

30 Oct 2009

Recent releases in Global Health

"Action always leads to reaction, a fundamental law of nature," write the authors of an introduction appearing in a Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes (JAIDS) supplemental issue that focuses on global health systems.

30 Oct 2009

New York Times examines debate over U.S. global health spending priorities

The New York Times examines the "debate over whether the United States and other rich nations spend too much on AIDS, which requires lifelong medications, compared with diarrhea and the other leading killer of children, pneumonia, both of which can be treated inexpensively."

30 Oct 2009

130 million children to be immunised against pneumonia

Marking the first international World Pneumonia Day on 2 November, the GAVI Alliance plans to immunise 130 million children in poor countries against pneumonia, the world's leading child killer.

30 Oct 2009