Mosquito News and Research

RSS

Brazil's deforestation linked to increased malaria incidence, study says

Deforestation in Brazil has been linked to an increase in malaria incidence there, according to findings published online Wednesday in the CDC journal, Emerging Infectious Diseases, Agence France-Presse reports.

19 Jun 2010

Malaria rises as forests disappear: Study

Avid deforestation of the tropical forests is cited to be one of the reasons for the 50% increase in incidence of this disease in the surrounding areas according to a new research that is tracking deforestation in Brazil's Amazon.

18 Jun 2010

Entomologists to develop genetically engineered bacteria for killing mosquito larvae

Roughly half the world's population still lives in areas at risk of malaria transmission. Even in the United States, 1500 cases of malaria are reported annually on average.

15 Jun 2010

Researchers transform yellow fever vaccine to fend off mosquito borne parasites that cause malaria

There is no vaccine for malaria, which sickens almost a quarter of a billion people each year and kills a child every 30 seconds. That could be changing: researchers at The Rockefeller University have genetically transformed the yellow fever vaccine to prime the immune system to fend off the mosquito borne parasites that cause the disease.

14 Jun 2010

Global Programme seeks to eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis by 2020

Representatives from more than 50 countries attended the Sixth Meeting of the Global Alliance to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (GAELF) in Seoul last week, to review the progress of the Global Programme to Eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis (Global Programme), which seeks to eliminate the disease by 2020.

14 Jun 2010

DEET-based repellents effective against insect and tick borne diseases

As summer nears, health experts are recommending insect repellents to help prevent mosquito and tick bites and the diseases that these bites sometimes transmit.

4 Jun 2010

Novel anti-malarial drug developed from blood thinner by Australian scientists

Malaria caused by a parasite that is borne in female mosquitoes and that spreads in humans through mosquito bites is a major public health problem and it kills more than a million people world wide each year. With the rise of resistance of many of the strains of the malaria parasite to most of the anti-malarial drugs the problem is escalating at an alarming pace.

2 Jun 2010

Anti-Dengue drug candidates demonstrate efficacy in preliminary cell culture studies

NanoViricides, Inc. reports that its anti-Dengue drug candidates demonstrated significant efficacy in the recently completed preliminary cell culture studies. The studies were performed in the laboratory of Dr. Eva Harris, Professor of Infectious Diseases at the University of California, Berkeley.

2 Jun 2010

Wall Street Journal examines GSK's open-source development for drug discovery plan

The Wall Street Journal examines GlaxoSmithKline's plan to share its database of compounds that could treat tropical diseases. The initiative will test how well "open-source principles work for developing new drugs," the newspaper reports.

28 May 2010

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers identify novel chemical compounds with anti-malarial activity

As part of a multicenter study, UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers have identified a series of chemical compounds that might serve as starting points for the identification of new classes of anti-malarial drugs.

26 May 2010

Senate Foreign Relations Committee to mark up $3.5B Haiti reconstruction bill

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee Tuesday is expected to mark up a bill that would "authorize $3.5 billion in reconstruction funds for Haiti over five years" and would also require USAID "to submit a long-term reconstruction plan to Congress as well as mandate the president to appoint a senior policy coordinator for Haiti," The Hill reports (Bogardus, 5/23).

26 May 2010

Consumer Reports Health rates four spray-on sunscreens

Memo to beach bums: get ready to pump it and spray it, and don't apply it in the wind. New tests of sunscreens by Consumer Reports Health reveal that four spray-on sunscreens provided the best protection from the sun's Ultraviolet A (UVA) and Ultraviolet B (UVB) rays. The ratings are available in the July issue of the magazine. The magazine also looks at insect repellents. Both articles are available in Spanish on www.consumerreportsenespanol.org.

25 May 2010

Opinions: Family planning; U.S. food aid

In his latest New York Times column, Nicholas Kristof writes about the "unavailability of birth control in many poor countries," noting some experiences from a recent trip to Africa.

24 May 2010

Modern malaria control efforts counteract effects of rising temperatures: Scientists

Contrary to a widespread assumption, global warming is unlikely to expand the range of malaria because of malaria control, development and other factors that are at work to corral the disease.

20 May 2010

Live malaria parasites in the skin shut down immune responses and block vaccine function: Study

Why one after another new malaria vaccine tests well in the laboratory but fails in field trials has frustrated legions of malaria researchers, and has been the main stumbling block to malaria eradication. Now, a research team from Germany has unraveled that puzzle and shown that the problem is all about the skin and how it controls the immune system. The implications are profound.

20 May 2010

Saint Louis University conducts research to find safe, effective vaccination for dengue

Sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, Saint Louis University's Center for Vaccine Development is conducting research of an investigational vaccine designed to prevent people from contracting dengue, a potentially lethal virus that has rapidly spread around the world.

20 May 2010

Parents ignore emotional suffering overweight kids experience as teens

Millions of kids who are obese will likely suffer from verbal abuse, societal ostracization, stigmas, health problems and eventually die at a young age. The double calamity will occur if parents continue to avoid the problem and ignore the cries for help from our children, declares Dr. Sasson Moulavi, M.D., founder of the Smart for Life(R) Cookie Diet and its children's lifestyle program THIN ADVENTURE(TM).

19 May 2010

HSPH researchers succeed in locking malaria parasites within infected blood cells

Harvard School of Public Health researchers and colleagues seeking to block invasion of healthy red blood cells by malaria parasites have instead succeeded in locking the parasites within infected blood cells, potentially containing the disease.

15 May 2010

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health awarded Grand Challenges Explorations grant

The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health announced today that it has received a $100,000 Grand Challenges Explorations grant from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The grant will support an innovative global health research project conducted by Jason Rasgon, PhD, an assistant professor with the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute, and his research to develop an evolution-proof pesticide for eliminating mosquitoes that transmit malaria to humans.

12 May 2010

New York Times examines global fight against HIV/AIDS

Several articles in the New York Times examine the global fight against HIV/AIDS. "Uganda is the first country where major clinics routinely turn people away" because they lack funding, the newspaper writes in an article that reports "money for [HIV/AIDS] treatment has stopped growing."

11 May 2010

Mosquito News and Research

Brazil's deforestation linked to increased malaria incidence, study says

Malaria rises as forests disappear: Study

Entomologists to develop genetically engineered bacteria for killing mosquito larvae

Researchers transform yellow fever vaccine to fend off mosquito borne parasites that cause malaria

Global Programme seeks to eliminate Lymphatic Filariasis by 2020

DEET-based repellents effective against insect and tick borne diseases

Novel anti-malarial drug developed from blood thinner by Australian scientists

Anti-Dengue drug candidates demonstrate efficacy in preliminary cell culture studies

Wall Street Journal examines GSK's open-source development for drug discovery plan

UT Southwestern Medical Center researchers identify novel chemical compounds with anti-malarial activity

Senate Foreign Relations Committee to mark up $3.5B Haiti reconstruction bill

Consumer Reports Health rates four spray-on sunscreens

Opinions: Family planning; U.S. food aid

Modern malaria control efforts counteract effects of rising temperatures: Scientists

Live malaria parasites in the skin shut down immune responses and block vaccine function: Study

Saint Louis University conducts research to find safe, effective vaccination for dengue

Parents ignore emotional suffering overweight kids experience as teens

HSPH researchers succeed in locking malaria parasites within infected blood cells

Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health awarded Grand Challenges Explorations grant

New York Times examines global fight against HIV/AIDS

Achieving and maintaining ISO/IEC 27001 and BS 10012 certifications

Expanding research and clinical options for children with cancer

Examining how pain could play a direct protective role in the gut

Latest News