Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

Aggressive medication leads to growth of drug-resistant pathogens

New research raises troubling concerns about the use of aggressive drug therapies to treat a wide range of diseases such as MRSA, C. difficile, malaria, and even cancer.

4 Aug 2011

Reducing commodity costs for ARVs could mean providing treatment to millions more people

"Reducing commodity costs for antiretroviral drugs by a mere five to 10 percent can represent hundreds of millions of dollars in savings for the global community. In turn these savings translate into millions of more patients who can receive access to life-saving treatment," David de Ferranti, president of Results for Development Institute (R4D), and Kanika Bahl, managing director at R4D, write in a Huffington Post opinion piece.

3 Aug 2011

New report offers solution for improving health care distribution methods

Each year millions of children and adults in the world's poorest countries die from lack of access to medicine and health care. A new report from Rice University's Jones Graduate School of Business and the George W. Bush Institute offers a solution for improving distribution methods for health care information, products and services.

2 Aug 2011

Wall Street Journal examines India's public health infrastructure

The Wall Street Journal and the newspaper's "India Real Time" blog published stories on Saturday examining India's health care system. "Indian government officials say the country's public health infrastructure is sorely deficient, but they argue it is improving because of several initiatives underway," the blog reports.

1 Aug 2011

Kenya Medical Services Minister to establish African Cancer Foundation

When Anyang' Nyong'o, Medical Services Minister of Kenya, returned cancer-free to his native land in March of this year, he made a commitment to the people of Kenya. "My experience is a wake-up call for us in Kenya," he proclaimed.

1 Aug 2011

Malaria No More, NASCAR champion partner to end mortality

NASCAR Nationwide Series Champion and driver of the No. 99 Aflac Ford in the Sprint Cup Series, Carl Edwards is partnering with nonprofit organization Malaria No More to join the race to end malaria deaths.

30 Jul 2011

Physicians to provide high-quality care, training to medically underserved community

Today, the first class of Texas Children's Global Health Corps will depart Houston for assignment in Africa. This talented team of pediatricians and family doctors will provide medical care and treatment to thousands of children and families affected by serious or life-threatening medical conditions, including sickle cell disease, malaria, tuberculosis, malnutrition, cancer and HIV/AIDS.

30 Jul 2011

Sigma-Tau, Soligenix expand partnership to develop and commercialize orBec in Europe

Soligenix, Inc., a late-stage biopharmaceutical company, announces the expansion and amendment of its North American licensing partnership with Sigma-Tau Pharmaceuticals, Inc. for the development and commercialization of orBec into the European territory.

29 Jul 2011

Efforts to fight HIV/AIDS, NTDs should be integrated

"The neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) produce a devastating level of chronic disability in sub-Saharan Africa, with some estimates suggesting that the NTD disease burden exceeds tuberculosis and is one-half that of malaria," Julie Noblick and Richard Skolnick of George Washington University and Peter Hotez of the Sabin Vaccine Institute write in a PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases editorial.

28 Jul 2011

Media outlets examine mobile phones' effect on health, development in Africa

PBS NewsHour examines how the Canadian organization MEDA is using text messages to track malaria supplies in local clinics and retailers in Tanzania. The piece includes a related video featuring a MEDA employee giving a tour of the program (Cheers, 7/22).

25 Jul 2011

African leaders must invest in malaria prevention

In a Daily Caller opinion piece, Richard Tren, director of Africa Fighting Malaria, highlights a finding in a recent malaria report that the U.S. government and the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation "were responsible for 85% of the steep increase in malaria funding between 2007 and 2009." But "[i]f 30 African heads of state were to give up their private jets, a fund of well over $500 million could be generated," Tren writes.

25 Jul 2011

Researchers characterise protein complex linked to malaria and toxoplasmosis

Maryse Lebrun, Research Director at Inserm, and her fellow researchers at the Laboratoire Dynamique des interactions membranaires normales et pathologiques, have characterised a protein complex that allows the agents that cause malaria and toxoplasmosis to infect host cells.

25 Jul 2011

House committee votes to reinstate 'global gag rule' on abortion

The House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday voted to "reinstate a ban on providing foreign aid to groups that perform abortions or provide advice about the procedure," The Hill's "HealthWatch" blog reports on the "so-called 'global gag rule'".

25 Jul 2011

Nearly 720,000 children are at risk of death across the Horn of Africa

With famine now declared in two regions of Southern Somalia and malnutrition rates at emergency levels in arid and semi-arid regions across the Horn of Africa, nearly 720,000 children are at risk of death without urgent assistance.

25 Jul 2011

Discovery challenges current thinking on origin of malaria parasite

The agent of malaria has been found in the greater spot-nosed monkey, also known as putty-nosed monkey (Cercopithecus nictitans), a small African primate derived from a line different to that of humans, gorillas and chimpanzees.

22 Jul 2011

Financial Times examines product development partnerships developing drugs for neglected diseases

The Financial Times examines the rise of product development partnerships (PDPs), which are "non-governmental organizations that generate their own funding and build partnerships with universities, businesses, government and patients in low-income countries to develop new drugs, vaccines, prevention techniques and diagnostics for diseases such as tuberculosis, HIV, malaria, cholera and meningitis."

22 Jul 2011

WHO warning increases opportunity for Biomagnetics urine based TB assay

Biomagnetics Diagnostics Corp., a developer of revolutionary diagnostic systems and technology for HIV, hepatitis, tuberculosis and malaria detection, and other innovative technologies, today announced that the World Health Organization ("WHO") on Sunday July 17, 2011 warned that the widely used blood tests to detect tuberculosis ("TB") are unreliable and "dangerous" to patients because they produce too many false negatives and positives.

21 Jul 2011

Shah discusses importance of partnerships in global health

The Malaria Policy Center's "Malaria Watch" blog describes comments made by USAID Administrator Rajiv Shah during a recent global health community call. During the call, Shah "stressed that to solve global health issues there needs to be shared 'responsibility across all partners.' Partnerships help 'save money, and saving money can save lives,'" the blog notes.

20 Jul 2011

Papua New Guinea government stepping down as Global Fund grant principal recipient

Following an audit last year by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria that found Papua New Guinea's National Department of Health (NDOH) "had not complied with grant guidelines and some $7 million had been misdirected," the government is stepping down as the principal recipient (PR) of Global Fund grants in order to "improve its response," IRIN reports.

20 Jul 2011

DNDi's new drug development programme for children with HIV/AIDS

Today at the 6th International AIDS Society (IAS) Conference on HIV Pathogenesis, Treatment and Prevention, the Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) announced the launch of a new drug development programme to address critical unmet treatment needs of children with HIV/AIDS.

19 Jul 2011