Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

Discovery may yield new strategies for blocking malaria transmission

Scientists studying the Anopheles gambiae mosquito - the main vector of malaria - have found that when the mosquito takes a blood meal, that act triggers two enzymes to form a network of crisscrossing proteins around the ingested blood.

15 Mar 2010

GAVI Alliance reaches agreement with drugmakers on reduced-price pneumococcal vaccines

Several drugmakers have reached an agreement "to supply up to 200 million doses a year of cut-price pneumococcal vaccines to developing nations," according to GAVI Alliance, Reuters reports.

15 Mar 2010

UNICEF Tap Project raises funds to help provide clean water to millions of children around the world

Now in its fourth year, the UNICEF Tap Project, a grassroots initiative from the U.S. Fund for UNICEF, returns to cities nationwide during World Water Week 2010 (March 21-27). The UNICEF Tap Project invites individuals to donate $1 or more for tap water at participating restaurants or online at tapproject.org to provide clean water to children around the world.

12 Mar 2010

Former President Clinton, Bill Gates encourage U.S. global health investment at Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing

Former President Bill Clinton and Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said Wednesday at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing "that U.S. investments in fighting [HIV/]AIDS, malaria and other diseases in underdeveloped nations save lives and play a vital role in improving America's image abroad," the Associated Press reports.

12 Mar 2010

A new way to control blood pressure

The control of blood pressure is central to people's wellbeing. One in three Australians suffer from high blood pressure (hypertension), a condition which can lead to coronary heart disease, heart failure, stroke and kidney failure.

11 Mar 2010

WHO issues new guidelines for malaria treatment

The World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing new guidelines for the treatment of malaria, and the first ever guidance on procuring safe and efficacious anti-malarial medicines.

11 Mar 2010

WHO's updated malaria guidelines include rapid diagnosis, new ACT

The WHO on Tuesday released new guidelines for the treatment of malaria, which recommend "parasitological testing before treatment begins" and add "a new artemisinin based combination treatment [ACT] to the list of prescribed drugs," BMJ News reports.

11 Mar 2010

British government, HIV/AIDS advocates warn decreased aid budgets could lead to reversals in HIV/AIDS treatment progress

Recent gains in the global fight against HIV/AIDS could be reversed as the "global economic downturn pinches poor countries' budgets and donors show signs of backing away from their promise to provide universal access to AIDS treatment," the British government together with Medecins Sans Frontieres warned Tuesday, Reuters AlertNet reports.

11 Mar 2010

Cempra Pharmaceuticals completes Phase 1 clinical trials of CEM-101 macrolide

Cempra Pharmaceuticals today announced the successful completion of Phase 1 clinical trials of its oral formulation of CEM-101, which showed good tolerability in those studies. The company also announced plans to submit an IND to the FDA to begin a Phase 1 study with the company's intravenous formulation of CEM-101 in mid-2010.

10 Mar 2010

Researchers take first step in development of vaccine against pregnancy-associated malaria

By managing to express the protein that enables red blood cells infected with the malaria agent Plasmodium falciparum to bind to the placenta and by deciphering its molecular mechanisms, a team of researchers from CNRS and the Institut Pasteur has taken an important first step in the development of a vaccine against pregnancy-associated malaria.

10 Mar 2010

UNAIDS director cautions against funding cuts to Global Fund

During an appeal to government and private donors to pledge money to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria on Monday, UNAIDS Executive Director Michel Sidibe warned of the repercussions tightening budgets could play in the global fight against HIV/AIDS, the Associated Press reports.

10 Mar 2010

Opinions: Don't slow fight against HIV, TB, malaria; U.S. focus on women, girls

In a BusinessDay opinion piece, Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria Michel Kazatchkine reflects on the organization's progress and impact on global health outcomes since its creation in 2002, as detailed in the organizations' 2010 annual report. Kazatchkine writes, 2010 "will be a decisive year; the world will be reviewing progress on the millennium goals. But this is also the year of the fund's replenishment. The results of that will decide where the world will be in 2015 with regard to the millennium goals."

10 Mar 2010

False positives in screening tests

In many jurisdictions, tests for human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) are required screening for pregnant women. Some even suggest screening the entire population for HIV. The rationale is to administer powerful antiretroviral drugs to healthy individuals to "prevent transmission."

10 Mar 2010

Chimerix initiates CMX001 Phase 2 clinical trial in stem cell transplant patients for CMV

Chimerix, Inc., a biotechnology company developing orally-available antiviral therapeutics, today announced the initiation of a multi-center Phase 2 clinical trial designed to evaluate CMX001 in stem cell transplant recipients who are seropositive for cytomegalovirus (CMV).

9 Mar 2010

Global Fund releases latest impact data, projections for improving global health in next decade

By 2015, mother-to-child HIV transmission will be virtually eliminated and deaths from malaria and tuberculosis will continue to decline if health investments for the diseases are maintained or scaled up, according to an annual results report published Monday by the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, Agence France-Presse/Africasia.com reports (3/8).

9 Mar 2010

CDC confirms 11 malaria cases in people who traveled to Haiti

The CDC on Thursday said it confirmed that 11 cases of Plasmodium falciparum malaria "among emergency personnel and Haitian residents who traveled to the U.S.," the Miami Herald reports. "The cases include: seven emergency responders, including six military personnel; three Haitian residents who traveled to the U.S., including one Haitian adoptee; and one U.S. traveler," the newspaper writes (Tasker, 3/5).

6 Mar 2010

Ban, Clinton launch voluntary travel donation for global health

Former President Bill Clinton and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in New York on Thursday launched MASSIVEGOOD - an initiative that allows travelers to make a $2 donation "to fight deadly diseases whenever they buy a plane ticket, book a hotel room or rent a car," Bloomberg/BusinessWeek reports (Varner, 3/4).

6 Mar 2010

MASSIVEGOOD launched to enable travelers make contributions towards major global health causes

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and President Bill Clinton join today with international recording artists will.i.am and David Guetta, South African singer Yvonne Chaka Chaka, and director Spike Lee, to launch MASSIVEGOOD, an innovative fundraising movement that will enable travelers to make a "micro-contribution" towards major global health causes every time they buy a plane ticket, reserve a hotel room or rent a car.

5 Mar 2010

Study indicates climate change plays a role in malaria transmission

Climate change is one reason malaria is on the rise in some parts of the world, new research finds, but other factors such as migration and land-use changes are likely also at play. The research, published in The Quarterly Review of Biology, aims to sort out contradictions that have emerged as scientists try to understand why malaria has been spreading into highland areas of East Africa, Indonesia, Afghanistan and elsewhere.

4 Mar 2010

TNFerade's suppression of cancer metastases: Mechanisms revealed

GenVec, Inc. announced the publication of new preclinical research revealing mechanisms by which TNFerade(TM) suppresses cancer metastases through activation of the immune system.

4 Mar 2010