Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

Money from Bill and Melinda Gates will help beat Dengue fever in Australia

The University of Queensland (UQ) has won a grant of $100,000 grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation to fight dengue and other mosquito-borne diseases.

11 May 2009

Australian scientists win funds for new research

One bold idea - that's all it takes - such is the creed of a bold initiative fostered by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and once again Bill Gates is putting his hand in his pocket for the good of mankind.

11 May 2009

Africa prepares for possible H1N1 flu outbreak amid concerns about HIV/AIDS, other diseases

African countries are preparing for the possibility that the H1N1 flu virus could expand in the continent, which already is experiencing epidemics of diseases such as HIV/AIDS and malaria, the AP/San Francisco Chronicle reports.

7 May 2009

New research nets the true economic costs of dengue fever

Researchers at Brandeis, in collaboration with several other institutions worldwide, have pinpointed for the first time the multi-country economic costs of dengue fever, the endemic and epidemic mosquito-borne illness that is a rapidly growing public health problem in tropical and sub-tropical countries.

7 May 2009

Obama proposes $63 billion global health initiative over six years

President Obama has proposed a $63 billion, six-year global health initiative as part of his fiscal year 2010budget, Reuters reports (Bohan, Reuters, 5/5).

6 May 2009

Countries move toward more sustainable ways to roll back malaria

The United Nations Environment Programme and the World Health Organization, in partnership with the Global Environment Facility, today announced a rejuvenated international effort to combat malaria with an incremental reduction of reliance on the synthetic pesticide DDT.

6 May 2009

Dengue fever may be more of a worry to Australians than swine flu

For the last week or so much of the world's media has been gripped by the new influenza A H1N1 (swine flu) virus which has dominated the headlines everywhere.

6 May 2009

International community should ensure access to diagnostic, treatment services to control tuberculosis in Africa, blog entry says

Tuberculosis "remains the most common cause of adult death in some countries" even though the global health community knows "what causes" the disease, "how it spreads" and "how to treat it," Ruth McNerney of the TARGETS Consortium at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine writes in the Guardian's "Katine Chronicles" blog.

5 May 2009

World Bank HIV/AIDS programs less effective than its other health programs, report finds

World Bank programs aimed at fighting HIV/AIDS, particularly in Africa, are less effective overall than World Bank programs aimed at addressing other health and development issues, according to a report released Thursday by the organization's Independent Evaluation Group, the New York Times reports.

5 May 2009

Australia's Dengue risk driven by human adaptation to climate change

'Drought-proofing' Australia's urban regions by installing large domestic water tanks may enable the dengue mosquito Aedes aegypti to regain its foothold across the country and expand its range of possible infections, according to a new study published May 5 in the open-access journal PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases.

4 May 2009

Recent initiatives in global health make progress against child deaths

Recent initiatives in global health have made significant advances in knowledge, prevention and reduction of diseases affecting children in low-income countries.

3 May 2009

HIV/AIDS advocate Bryden praises nomination of former Clinton official Goosby to global AIDS coordinator post

HIV/AIDS advocate David Bryden of the Center for Global Health Policy on Tuesday praised President Obama's nomination of Eric Goosby as Global AIDS Coordinator, VOA News reports.

30 Apr 2009

USAID cooperates in pandemic preparedness initiative

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) is convening a group of civil society organizations in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, in a regional exercise that will kick off the implementation stage of its Humanitarian Pandemic Preparedness initiative.

30 Apr 2009

Simple blood test proves powerful ally in the fight against malaria

Scientists at the Swedish medical university Karolinska Institutet have shown that rapid diagnostic tests (RDT) for malaria infection can provide valuable support for healthcare in low and mid-income countries in the fight against the disease.

30 Apr 2009

Global health organizations are doing too little to support health system strengthening

Existing health systems in the developing world are fragile and many are unable to provide effective health services - and so there is growing consensus that the success of global health initiatives will depend on "health system strengthening" (a recent buzzword in global health).

30 Apr 2009

Rapid malaria tests improve health outcomes in practice

A new study, carried out in primary care units in Zanzibar and published in this week's issue of PLoS Medicine, evaluates the impact of rapid malaria tests on prescribing practice and clinical outcomes.

30 Apr 2009

Malaria diagnostic tests differ in performance

The largest-ever independent, laboratory-based evaluation of rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for malaria has shown that some tests on the market perform exceptionally well in tropical temperatures and can detect even low parasite densities in blood samples, while other tests can detect parasites only at high densities.

26 Apr 2009

Climate change linked to increase of cholera cases in Zambia

A study lead by researchers from the Madrid Carlos III Institute of Health associates the increase of cholera cases in Zambia with climatic factors.

23 Apr 2009

Immune cell type controls onset and course of severe malaria

Scientists have determined that a subset of immune cells may cause malaria patients to contract the severe form of the disease, suffering worse symptoms.

23 Apr 2009

Malaria death in Zambia decline by 66%

Malaria deaths reported from health facilities in Zambia have declined by 66%. This result along with other supporting data indicates that Zambia has reached the 2010 Roll Back Malaria target of a more than 50% reduction in malaria mortality compared to 2000.

23 Apr 2009