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.
The World Health Organization (WHO) has issued new guidelines concerning the use of the malaria drug Artemisinin.
A British university will benefit from a donation from Bill and Melinda Gates to the tune of £28 million as part of a £145 million gift to malaria research worldwide.
Despite changes in policy in many African countries, most cases of malaria are still treated with old drugs that often fail, say researchers the British Medical Journal.
In a new report published today, ''Susceptibility of Plasmodium Falciparum to Antimalarial Drugs,'' the World Health Organization (WHO) warns that as more and more people gain access to these life-saving malaria medicines, which combine a drug derived from the plant Artemisia annua with a second, synthetic drug, it is vital that countries closely monitor their effectiveness.
If used alone, artemisinins will cure the most severe type of malaria - falciparum malaria - in seven days. However, when used on their own, they have a high risk of the malaria coming back and hence must be combined with other antimalarials to work best.
According to new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), progress has been made in preventing and treating malaria since 2000 and more countries are introducing the latest preventative measures to beat the disease.
Experts say it is too early to assess if an international initiative, Roll Back Malaria (RBM), has had any impact on combating malaria.
As Africa marks its own Malaria Day in recognition of the fact that it bears 90% of the deadly disease’s burden, an international research coalition is working to develop a cocktail of drugs that overcomes increasing resistance to conventional treatment exhibited by the elusive parasite.
Liquorice - the black stuff we love to eat, contains a compound - glycyrrhizic acid which may stop people with a herpes virus from developing cancer.A research team at New York University found the compound - glycyrrhizic acid - possibly has the ability to stop the virus triggering a form of cancer called Kaposi sarcoma.
Researchers at the University of Washington have blended the past with the present in the fight against cancer, synthesizing a promising new compound from an ancient Chinese remedy that uses cancer cells' rapacious appetite for iron to make them a target.
On 8 November, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced a shortfall of artemether + lumefantrine, an artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) used to treat malaria, for the period between November 2004 and March 2005
Results of a randomised trial from Uganda in this week’s issue of THE LANCET suggest that the drug combination of amodiaquine and sulfadoxinepyrimethamine might offer the optimal treatment for malaria in terms of efficacy and cost-effectiveness in this region.
Sharply increased demand for artemether-lumefantrine, an artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) used to treat malaria, is likely to result in a shortage from now until at least March 2005. ACTs are currently the most effective medicines available to treat falciparum malaria -- the deadliest form of the disease.
The University of California, Berkeley, has signed an agreement with the Samoan government to isolate from an indigenous tree the gene for a promising anti-AIDS drug and to share any royalties from sale of a gene-derived drug with the people of Samoa.
Malaria research scientists from around the globe have published new insights into the international burden of malaria and what can be done about it.
Imported resistance has rendered ineffective the two affordable malaria drugs which have been the mainstay of malaria treatment in Africa for forty years, according to experts writing today in the journal Science.
Within the next five years, international organizations and world leaders should begin collectively to contribute $300 million to $500 million annually to create a global subsidy that would make new combination malaria treatments available to the world's poor for as little as 10 cents per treatment course
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), the World Health Organisation's Special Programme for Research and Training in Tropical Diseases (WHO-TDR) and the Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) today announced the signing of a collaborative agreement, to develop a new-fixed dose artemisinin combination therapy drug (ACT), combining chlorproguanil, dapsone and artesunate (CDA) for the treatment of malaria.
Widespread use of a new fast-acting and potent treatment for malaria is finally on the horizon in Africa, where malaria is the number one killer of children.
More than 600 million people, most of them children living in sub-Saharan Africa, face the daily threat of death from malaria because new, effective treatments are not available where they live. Existing, cheaper medicines, which have been used for many years, are no longer effective in most places because the malaria parasite has developed resistance to them.