Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

Use of insecticide-treated bednets linked to local resurgence of malaria, study says

"Insecticide-treated bednets, whose use is being widely promoted in Africa to combat malaria, may paradoxically be linked to local resurgence of the disease," according to a study published in the Lancet on Thursday, the Independent reports.

19 Aug 2011

Mosquitoes fast to develop resistance against insecticide-treated bed nets

According to a study from Senegal mosquitoes are quick to develop resistance to insecticide-treated nets. This has raised concerns that a leading method of preventing the disease may be less effective than previously thought.

18 Aug 2011

New collaboration for development of new malaria vaccine

"The Infectious Disease Research Institute (IDRI) today announced a new Memorandum of Understanding with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID), focused on support of a collaboration with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR) for the development of a new vaccine against malaria," an IDRI press release states.

18 Aug 2011

Washington Post examines history, future of mosquito control efforts

The Washington Post looks at the history and future of disease-carrying mosquitoes, "the most deadly non-human animal on the planet." The newspaper describes several mosquito-control methods, and poses the question, "If scientists could find a way to wipe out all mosquitoes - recent studies have shown that it may be possible to chemically sterilize males and dupe the females into mating with them - would that be a good idea?".

17 Aug 2011

PERCH study to look at current and likely future causes of childhood pneumonia

Pneumonia kills more children around the world than any other disease, but the last major effort to study the causes of childhood pneumonia across many countries was conducted in the 1980's. This week, a groundbreaking new study called the Pneumonia Etiology Research for Child Health (PERCH) study gets off the ground.

17 Aug 2011

East African profiles new GAVI Alliance CEO Seth Berkley

The East African profiles Seth Berkley, the new CEO of the GAVI Alliance and founder and former CEO of the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative.

16 Aug 2011

Bird malaria in Britain worries experts

British birds are being increasingly detected with malaria. Two decades back few British species showed regular signs of infection but now some 30 types are infected, monitoring projects have found. The problem is linked to a rapid growth in mosquito populations, which is attributed to a rise of about 1 degrees centigrade in global average temperature, say experts.

15 Aug 2011

Climate change to affect spread of malaria in India, study says

Over the next 20 years, "[c]limate change is likely to spread malaria to new areas in the Indian Himalayas, and lengthen the periods in which the infection is spread in a number of districts, according to projections [.pdf] from" researchers at the National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), Delhi, and published in a special issue of Current Science on Wednesday, SciDev.Net reports.

12 Aug 2011

U.S Global Malaria Coordinator discusses U.S. investment in global fight against malaria

In a Malaria Policy Center "Malaria Watch TV" video post, U.S. Global Malaria Coordinator Rear Admiral Tim Ziemer "speaks with the Malaria Policy Center about the status of the malaria fight and how the U.S. is leading the way against this preventable and treatable disease," the organization writes.

12 Aug 2011

Commercial blood serum antibody tests cost-effective, not accurate for active TB

Commercial blood serum antibody tests—widely used in India and other developing countries to diagnose active tuberculosis—are not accurate or cost-effective, according to an analysis by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, the University of Washington School of Public Health and McGill University.

11 Aug 2011

Aeras, OETC announce initiation of new TB vaccine Phase IIb trial in patients with HIV

Aeras and the Oxford-Emergent Tuberculosis Consortium (OETC) announce today the start of a Phase IIb proof-of-concept efficacy trial of a new investigational tuberculosis (TB) vaccine that involves people living with the human immunodeficiency virus.

11 Aug 2011

U.S. can do more to reverse famine in Horn of Africa

Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, who is traveling in East Africa with a U.S. delegation "to study the famine affecting the lives of over 12 million people, many of them children," writes in the Huffington Post's blog, "Huffpost Impact," that the group will assess "what more we as a nation can do."

10 Aug 2011

Spermless mosquitoes could reduce spread of malaria, study suggests

In an effort to curb the spread of malaria, researchers from Britain and Italy have genetically altered male mosquitoes so that they do not produce sperm, according to a study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the Los Angeles Times' "Booster Shots" blog reports.

10 Aug 2011

New study focuses on Anopheles gambiae to prevent spread of malaria

A female mosquito cannot tell if the male that she has mated with is fertile or 'spermless' and unable to fertilise her eggs, according to a new study from scientists at Imperial College London.

9 Aug 2011

Genetically altered spermless ‘mozzies’ to combat malaria

In a fresh new attempt to combat malaria, researchers have developed another way to reduce the numbers of the malaria-spreading blood-suckers: introduce genetically altered spermless males into the population.

8 Aug 2011

Guardian features fact pages on MDGs

The Guardian on Friday published fact pages on the eight Millennium Development Goals.

8 Aug 2011

Economic slowdown should not hamper global fund donations

With the new knowledge that providing antiretroviral treatment to people living with HIV would "contribut[e] to a sharp slowdown in the spread of the virus," "scaling up treatment now may prove to be the least expensive option if we want to bring this deadly pandemic, which still infects 1.8 million people every year, under control," Michel Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria writes in the Guardian's "Poverty Matters Blog."

6 Aug 2011

Lancet reports on Global Fund donors that have held back contributions

Several donors to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria "continue to hold back their contributions for this year … adding up to more than $500 million that the Global Fund had been counting on for this year out of a total budget of about $3 billion," the Lancet reports.

6 Aug 2011

Novel DNA sensing pathway linked to increased susceptibility to malaria

Scientists at the University of Massachusetts Medical School have uncovered a novel DNA-sensing pathway important to the triggering of an innate immune response for malaria. Activation of this pathway appears to stimulate production of an overabundance of type-1 interferon by the immune system that may contribute to inflammation and fever in malaria patients and could play a part in susceptibility for the most common and lethal form of malaria known as plasmodium falciparum.

5 Aug 2011

Daily text messages to health workers improve proper malaria treatment administration, study shows

"Sending daily text message reminders to health workers can mean nearly 25 percent more children are properly treated for malaria, according to the results of a six-month trial conducted in Kenya" published Thursday in the Lancet, Reuters reports.

5 Aug 2011