Plasmodium falciparum News and Research

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FDA approves rapid test for malaria

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has cleared for marketing the Binax NOW Malaria Test, the first authorized U.S. rapid test for malaria, a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite. The test is intended for laboratory use.

27 Jun 2007

More effective treatment for malaria control during pregnancy in Africa

A review of previous studies indicates that two doses of a malaria preventive therapy during pregnancy provides substantial benefit to HIV-negative women in Africa, with more frequent dosing apparently necessary for HIV-positive women, according to an article in the June 20 issue of JAMA.

20 Jun 2007

Malaria and Epstein-Barr virus in Africa

Endemic Burkitt lymphoma is a form of cancer that accounts for up to 74% of malignant disorders in children in equatorial Africa.

14 Jun 2007

New understanding of anti-malarial drug resistance

Researchers at Georgetown University Medical Center say they are moving closer to understanding why the most lethal form of human malaria has become resistant to drug treatment in the past three decades.

8 Jun 2007

Evaluation of leading combination regimens for treating malaria

Ugandan children who received the combination therapy of artemether-lumefantrine experienced a lower rate of treatment failure compared to other combination therapies, according to a study in the May 23/30 issue of JAMA , a theme issue on malaria.

24 May 2007

Antibody-based therapies effective at controlling malaria

Passive immunization through the development of fully human antibodies specific to Plasmodium falciparum may be effective at controlling the disease, report researchers led by Dr. Richard S.

18 May 2007

Study on cerebral malaria in children living in an endemic region

Scientists at CNRS and the Pasteur Institute, collaborating with physicians in Gabon, have just undertaken a study on cerebral malaria in children living in an endemic region.

4 May 2007

1758 cases of malaria reported in UK travellers in 2006

1386 of the cases were due to the potentially fatal Plasmodium falciparum which is a major international health risk and which kills more than a million people a year in Africa. 219 were due to Plasmodium vivax which causes a debilitating disease, but is rarely fatal.

2 May 2007

New guidelines on cultivating Artemisia plant used in anti-malaria medicines

The World Health Organization (WHO) has published guidelines for the cultivation and collection of Artemisia (Artemisia annua L., Asteraceae), known in the United States as sweet Annie or annual wormwood, a Chinese traditional medicinal plant which is the source of artemisinin, used to produce the most effective medicines for malaria.

12 Mar 2007

Revisiting the basic reproductive number for malaria

Each year, malaria results in more than a million deaths. Controlling this disease involves understanding its transmission, and understanding its transmission means understanding its basic reproductive number, R0.

20 Feb 2007

Jamaica and Malaria

The Ministry of Health of Jamaica has confirmed 280 cases of malaria due to Plasmodium falciparum on the island between 6 November 2006 and 3 February 2007.

11 Feb 2007

An effective malaria vaccine by 2025

A report by the world's leading international health organizations today calls for joint action to accelerate the development and licensing of a highly effective malaria vaccine.

4 Dec 2006

Researchers discover one of the malaria parasite's sneakiest tricks

Researchers have discovered one of the malaria parasite's sneakiest tricks--using dead liver cells to cloak and transport itself back into the bloodstream after leaving the liver.

4 Aug 2006

Bahamas malaria outbreak causes concern

A case of malaria which has cropped up in the Bahamas has caused concern and raised many questions for health officials and has worried local residents.

19 Jun 2006

Scientists discover structure of malaria defense process

Scientists from two universities in Italy and Virginia Tech in the United States have determined the structure of a protein that is responsible for the production xanthurenic acid (XA) in Anopheles gambiae, the malaria carrying mosquitoes.

4 Apr 2006

World's deadliest malaria parasite cloaking gene revealed

The world's deadliest malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, sneaks past the human immune system with the help of a wardrobe of invisibility cloaks. If a person's immune cells learn to recognize one of the parasite's many camouflage proteins, the surviving invaders can swap disguises and slip away again to cause more damage. Malaria kills an estimated 2.7 million people annually worldwide, 75 percent of them children in Africa.

29 Dec 2005

Potential drug target for malaria

Researchers have identified an enzyme crucial to the malaria parasite's invasion of red blood cells, according to a study in the open-access journal, PLoS Pathogens.

26 Nov 2005

Fundamental insight about protein evolution

While searching for new targets for malaria drugs and vaccines, a team including a Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI) medical student fellow reached a fundamental insight about evolution: different species make use of similar sets of proteins in different ways.

3 Nov 2005

New method to find deadly malaria parasite

Researchers at UCSD have discovered that the single-cell parasite responsible for an estimated 1 million deaths per year worldwide from malaria has protein "wiring" that differs markedly from the cellular circuitry of other higher organisms

3 Nov 2005

Researchers gain insights into how malaria pathogen destroys the cells in which it resides

By specially tagging the outer and inner membranes of red blood cells infected with the malaria parasite and tracking the cellular changes that precede the cell bursting event that disperses parasites to other blood cells, a group of researchers has deepened our understanding of how the malaria pathogen destroys the cells in which it resides.

26 Sep 2005