Malaria

Malaria is a mosquito-borne disease caused by a parasite called Plasmodium - when infected mosquitoes bite the human body, the parasites multiply in the liver, and then infect red blood cells. Even though this potentially fatal disease can be prevented and cured, each year 350-500 million cases of malaria still occur worldwide, and over one million people die, most of them young children in Africa south of the Sahara, where one in every five (20%) childhood deaths is due to the effects of the disease.

Malaria is so common in Africa because a lack of resources and political instability have prevented the building of solid malaria control programs. Experts say an African child has on average between 1.6 and 5.4 episodes of malaria fever each year and according to the World Health Organization (WHO) as many as half of the world's population are at risk of malaria mainly in the world's poorest and most vulnerable countries and every 30 seconds a child dies from malaria.

What is Malaria?

Malaria is an infectious disease of tropical countries. It is spread by mosquitoes. It is manifested by fever along with chills and rigors. Unless it is diagnosed and treated promptly, it can be fatal. A single mosquito bite may be enough to cause the infection.

Malaria Causes

Malaria Mechanism

Malaria Diagnosis

Malaria Prevention

Malaria Treatment

Malaria Epidemiology

Malaria History

Malaria Society And Culture

Malaria Symptoms

Malaria: A Force Shaping Blood Cell Evolution?

Latest Malaria News and Research

Fast-acting anti-malarial compound shows promise in first clinical trial

A fast-acting anti-malarial compound discovered at St. Jude Children's Research Hospital was well tolerated and showed promising anti-malarial effects in the first study in humans.

27 Mar 2020

New research initiative to investigate multi-species response to novel coronavirus

Scientists at Texas Biomedical Research Institute (Texas Biomed) today announced the launch of a comprehensive research initiative to investigate multiple animal species and their response to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19).

26 Mar 2020

Critical guidance to identify COVID-19 patients at risk of drug-induced sudden cardiac death

SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, continues to spread, leading to more than 20,000 deaths worldwide in less than four months. Efforts are progressing to develop a COVID-19 vaccine, but it's still likely 12 to 18 months away.

25 Mar 2020

Why hoarding of hydroxychloroquine needs to stop

A family of old antimalarial drugs — including one that some patients rely on to treat their lupus or rheumatoid arthritis — is becoming harder to get in the United States, pharmacists say, partly because of remarks President Donald Trump has made, highlighting the drugs as a potential treatment for COVID-19.

25 Mar 2020

Huge WHO trial of COVID-19 therapies begins

As the world reels from the devastating impact and the looming threat of the novel coronavirus COVID-19, researchers around the globe are racing to find a cure that will reduce symptom severity and reverse the course of the disease, freeing up more hospital space and making it possible to treat more of the severely affected cases.

24 Mar 2020

DFG underlines the need for long-term, knowledge-driven basic research

In view of the coronavirus pandemic, the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft has underlined the need for long-term, knowledge-driven basic research.

21 Mar 2020

Researchers highlight urgent need for public health leadership during COVID-19 pandemic

For decades, public health officials have directed the containment of emerging pandemics - perhaps most notably - the worldwide eradication of smallpox starting in the early to mid-1960s.

19 Mar 2020

Triple therapies effective and safe in malaria

A new study describing the outcome of a clinical trial of two malaria treatment protocols involving the use of triple therapies based on artemisinin reports their high efficacy and low adverse effects.

12 Mar 2020

Demand for coffee has a direct link to malaria risk

A new study published in the journal Nature Communications in March 2020 reports that a fifth of the malaria risk in deforestation hot spots is down to the export trade in coffee, timber, soybean, cocoa, wood products, palm oil tobacco, beef, and cotton.

9 Mar 2020

Individual responsibility to prevent the spread of COVID-19 is equally vital as government action

How individuals respond to government advice on preventing the spread of COVID-19 will be at least as important, if not more important, than government action, according to a new commentary from researchers at the University of Oxford and Imperial College London in the UK, and Utrecht University and the National Institute for Public Health and the Environment in the Netherlands.

7 Mar 2020

Novel compounds show promise as potent new treatment for malaria

A novel class of antimalarial compounds that can effectively kill malaria parasites has been developed by Australian and US researchers.

4 Mar 2020

How malaria evades the body’s immune response

Malaria is a life-threatening disease caused by parasites that are transmitted to people through the bites of infected female Anopheles mosquitoes. In 2018, there were over 200 million cases of malaria worldwide. Now, a team of researchers found evidence that the malaria parasite can detect a molecule released by approaching immune cells, using it to protect itself and evade the attack by the body’s immune system.

19 Feb 2020

Drugs targeting T cells may be effective in treating cerebral malaria

Researchers at the National Institutes of Health found evidence that specific immune cells may play a key role in the devastating effects of cerebral malaria, a severe form of malaria that mainly affects young children.

18 Feb 2020

Simple blood test measures the body's immune response to improve ovarian cancer diagnosis

Researchers have developed a simple blood test that measures the body's own immune response to improve diagnosis of ovarian cancer.

17 Feb 2020

Swansea University drug resistance research highlighted in two prestigious journals

Swansea University research into the threat posed by antifungal drug resistance has been highlighted in two prestigious international journals.

14 Feb 2020

Researchers develop high-resolution forecast model for the spread of malaria

Climate change aggravates global health problems, above all for people in Africa. The group "Climate change and Health in Sub-Saharan Africa" funded by the German Research Foundation studies climate-induced damage to health in Burkina Faso and Kenya.

13 Feb 2020

To fight Chinese outbreak, doctors deploy drugs targeting HIV, malaria and Ebola

As the scientific community scrambles to find a drug that can effectively treat tens of thousands of patients sickened by a new respiratory virus, they are trying some surprising remedies: medicines targeting known killers like HIV, Ebola and malaria.

13 Feb 2020

Major breakthrough in understanding how malaria parasite grows and multiplies

Scientists have made a major breakthrough in understanding how the parasite that causes malaria is able to multiply at such an alarming rate, which could be a vital clue in discovering how it has evolved, and how it can be stopped.

11 Feb 2020

Study identifies potential drug target and way to alleviate cerebral malaria

Scientists have identified a key molecule involved in the development of cerebral malaria, a deadly form of the tropical disease. The study identifies a potential drug target and way forward toward alleviating this condition for which few targeted treatments are available.

9 Feb 2020

Researchers reveal new activity above the surface in brain-cell receptors

Like buoys bobbing on the ocean, many receptors float on the surface of a cell's membrane with a part sticking above the water and another underwater, inside the cell's cytoplasm.

7 Feb 2020