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Artemisinin is a drug used to treat multi-drug resistant strains of falciparum malaria. The compound (a sesquiterpene lactone) is isolated from the plant Artemisia annua. Not all plants of this species contain artemisinin.
U.N. urges sustained support for prevention, treatment activities on World Malaria Day

U.N. urges sustained support for prevention, treatment activities on World Malaria Day

On World Malaria Day (April 25), the U.N. "warned ... that malaria maintains its impact on less developed countries, mainly in Africa, where millions of people lack needed attention," and in a message marking the day, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon "urged political leaders and health authorities of states where malaria is endemic to keep their commitment to achieve universal access to prevention and treatment of malaria". [More]

U.S. CDC, FDA, armed forces taking action to fight malaria

Testifying before Congress this week, CDC Director Thomas Frieden "said the challenge in the fight against malaria, which in Africa alone kills one child every minute, is staying one step ahead of the malaria parasite" and "cited the need for better public health surveillance, and urged Congress to fund better detection tools". [More]

WHO highlights threat of antimalarial drug resistance in Greater Mekong subregion

On World Malaria Day, 25 April, WHO recognizes significant accomplishments in preventing and controlling malaria, including in high-burden countries in sub-Saharan Africa, but highlights the threat of antimalarial drug resistance in south-east Asia's Greater Mekong subregion, where an emergency response is now being launched. [More]

Blog examines implications of synthetic artemisinin production for global health

"This week, PATH and our partners celebrated the official launch of the production line for a new synthetic version of artemisinin, the key ingredient for the gold-standard malaria treatment -- one that plays a major role in protecting the lives of children and adults worldwide," PATH President and CEO Steve Davis writes in the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation's "Impatient Optimists" blog. [More]

Production of synthetic artemisinin an attack against farmers currently growing the plant

"On Thursday, the founder of Amyris Biotech triumphantly announced production of 70 million doses of the anti-malarial compound artemisinin," Jim Thomas, research program director for ETC group, a technology watchdog that works with farmers' organizations, writes in The Guardian's "Poverty Matters" blog. [More]

New process to create malaria drug artemisinin should provide stable supply, reduce cost, researchers report

"U.S. scientists on Wednesday said they had used baker's yeast to make a key ingredient of malaria drugs, a feat that could iron out fluctuations in supply caused by sourcing the chemical from a Chinese herb," Artemisia annua, Agence France-Presse reports (4/10). [More]

Sanofi launches large-scale production of artemisinin for malaria

Twelve years after a breakthrough discovery in his University of California, Berkeley, laboratory, professor of chemical engineering Jay Keasling is seeing his dream come true. [More]
Immature malaria parasites more resistant to treatment with artemisinin

Immature malaria parasites more resistant to treatment with artemisinin

New research has revealed that immature malaria parasites are more resistant to treatment with key antimalarial drugs than older parasites, a finding that could lead to more effective treatments for a disease that kills one person every minute and is developing resistance to drugs at an alarming rate. [More]

To overcome challenges in Africa's malaria response, focus on testing, treatment at community level

"Significant investment in malaria research has yielded effective interventions such as insecticide treated nets, indoor residual spraying and artemisinin-based combination therapies to control the disease, but its burden continues to be felt among the poorest," George Okello, a research fellow at the Kenya Medical Research Institute, and Nina Cromeyer Dieke, communications manager for the Global Atlas of Helminth Infections based at the London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine, write in an opinion piece in the Guardian's "Global Development Professionals Network." [More]
Subsidised antimalarial drugs: an interview with Kara Hanson

Subsidised antimalarial drugs: an interview with Kara Hanson

Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are the currently recommended drugs for treating malaria. However, they are expensive, which limits their affordability. This means that people with malaria are likely to buy cheaper, less effective antimalarials such as chloroquine and sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine; or to simply buy painkillers and antipyretics. [More]

New low-cost combined therapy shows promise against malaria

Malaria brings misery and death to millions in the developing world each year, and fighting it keeps medical researchers up at night because the mosquito-borne parasite Plasmodium falciparum, which causes the deadliest form of the disease, has developed resistance to every drug thrown at it. Resistance has cut short the useful life of nearly every therapy tried so far, experts say. [More]

NPR, Inter Press Service examine efforts to prevent drug-resistant malaria

As part of its continuing coverage of malaria, NPR's "Shots" blog features a story on counterfeit anti-malarial drugs, which "are among the most popular drugs to fake." According to the blog, "These faux pharmaceuticals are particularly dangerous because malaria can kill a person in a matter of days," and, if the drugs contain only a small amount of the real drug, they can contribute to the development of drug-resistant malaria parasites. [More]

Malaria progress at risk as funding for global response levels off, WHO report states

"The remarkable gains made in the treatment of malaria over the past decade are under threat because of insufficient increases in funding over the past two years, according to an annual progress report by the World Health Organization," the Guardian reports. [More]
Maryland researchers launch groundbreaking study into spread of drug-resistant malaria in Burma

Maryland researchers launch groundbreaking study into spread of drug-resistant malaria in Burma

University of Maryland School of Medicine researchers have launched groundbreaking research into the spread of potentially deadly drug-resistant malaria in the developing Southeast Asian nation of Myanmar, also known as Burma. [More]
Malaria vaccine trial: an interview with Professor Sir Brian Greenwood

Malaria vaccine trial: an interview with Professor Sir Brian Greenwood

Malaria is an infection caused by a parasite called plasmodium, which is transmitted from person to person by females of some species of mosquito. It is primarily a disease of tropical countries. [More]

Clinics on Cambodian-Thai border aim to prevent spread of drug-resistant malaria

BBC News examines "a worrying drop in the effectiveness of the artemisinin-based drugs" against malaria along the Cambodian-Thai border, and how clinics are attempting to combat the trend by offering monetary incentives to patients to complete treatment regimens. [More]

AMFm should continue, improvements should be explored

The "grand experiment" of the Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria (AMFm) -- a pilot program that aims to get artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) into rural areas of several African nations -- "seems likely to end, its successes underrated and potential improvements not yet explored," a Nature editorial says. [More]
Emory University, Georgia Tech to establish Malaria Host-Pathogen Interaction Center

Emory University, Georgia Tech to establish Malaria Host-Pathogen Interaction Center

The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, has awarded a five-year contract of up to $19.4 million, depending on contract options exercised, to establish the Malaria Host-Pathogen Interaction Center (MaHPIC). [More]

Global Fund Board announces integration of AMFm into core grant system

The Board of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Thursday announced it will "integrate" the Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria (AMFm), implemented in 2010 as a pilot program to provide low-cost artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) in poor and rural areas, "into its existing core system of providing grants to countries to purchase drugs, bed nets and other malaria-control measures," Nature News Blog reports. [More]

Global health community should save AMFm because it saves lives

The Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria began as a pilot program in 2010 to "provide a 'co-payment' to the manufacturers of [artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs)], thereby allowing commercial wholesalers and private or government health services to purchase the drugs at a fraction of the already low negotiated price," Kenneth Arrow, a Nobel laureate in economic sciences in 1972 and an emeritus professor of economics at Stanford University, writes in a New York Times opinion piece. [More]