Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

News outlets examine malaria drug resistance, hope for malaria eradication in Africa

Experts at an American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene meeting this week said that resistance to the best available drug to treat malaria "is more widespread in Southeast Asia than previously reported," Science News/Wired Science reports. Researchers have been monitoring drug resistance along the Thailand-Cambodia border where patients taking artemisinin combination therapy - the most potent treatment for malaria - have been clearing the parasite from their bodies more slowly.

20 Nov 2009

Antimalarial drug resistance endangers malarial control measures

Evidence of resistance to the antimalarial drug artemisinin and its derivatives threatens efforts to control malaria in Southeast Asia, and experts fear artemisinin resistance may spread from the Thailand-Cambodia border to affect other malaria endemic countries. Evidence to such effect was presented today at the 58th annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (ASTMH).

20 Nov 2009

Researchers to discover new vaccine against infection from Lyme disease

A protein found in the saliva of ticks helps protect mice from developing Lyme disease, Yale researchers have discovered. The findings, published in the November 19 issue of Cell Host & Microbe, may spur development of a new vaccine against infection from Lyme disease, which is spread through tick bites.

20 Nov 2009

Pfizer,DNDi partner to Identify NTD drugs; Sanofi-Aventis, medicines for malaria launch drug study

Pfizer and the Drugs for Neglected Diseases Initiative (DNDi) on Wednesday announced plans to team up in an effort to identify new drug candidates for the treatment of three tropical diseases, the Associated Press/Business Week reports. The scientists will test the efficacy of Pfizer drug candidates against sleeping sickness, visceral leishmaniasis, and Chagas disease.

19 Nov 2009

Op-Eds: HIV travel ban; improving sanitation; counterfeit drugs

A "blot" on U.S. HIV/AIDS leadership "ended last month when President [Barack] Obama lifted the prohibition" that kept HIV-positive foreigners from visiting the U.S. or seeking residency, according to a Washington Post editorial. "The process for eliminating the travel ban started under President George W. Bush in July 2008, when he signed legislation that repealed the original statute."

19 Nov 2009

New online tool launched to encourage donations and fight global hunger

Mercy Corps is challenging Americans to put the "giving" back in Thanksgiving by matching the amount they spend on a meal this Thanksgiving Day with a donation that fights global hunger.

19 Nov 2009

Malaria experts urge Congress to increase funding for malaria programs

While efforts to control and eliminate malaria have made great strides during the past five years, the looming specter of drug resistance heightens the importance of continued research and development for new tools to assure continued success, according to malaria scientists and public health experts appearing today on Capitol Hill.

19 Nov 2009

Pfizer and DNDi to battle against HAT, VL and Chagas disease

Pfizer Inc and Drugs for Neglected Diseases initiative (DNDi) have signed an agreement that is designed to facilitate advancements in the battle against human African trypanosomiasis (HAT), visceral leishmaniasis (VL) and Chagas disease, which afflict vulnerable populations in the developing world.

19 Nov 2009

Opinions: Fighting TB; currency transaction tax

Though tuberculosis "is one of the world's leading killers … few citizens, scientists and policymakers are demanding more attention to TB research, treatment and prevention. … It's time to bring TB research into the 21st century," Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, writes in an MSNBC opinion piece.

19 Nov 2009

MSF's volunteer physicians receive free access to Elsevier's electronic CDS tool

The physicians of the world renowned Doctors Without Borders/Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF), which won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1999, will receive free access to MD Consult (www.mdconsult.com), Elsevier's premier electronic clinical decision support (CDS) tool, as the result of a special new Elsevier campaign.

18 Nov 2009

Accurate diagnostic tests required to fight against major infectious disease

A rapid and accurate diagnosis is the first step towards treatment in the fight against infectious disease. However, a team headed by Dr. Madhukar Pai at the Research Institute of the McGill University Health Centre (RI-MUHC) and McGill University in collaboration with researchers at the TDR* and the WHO*, has highlighted the poor quality of published studies that evaluate the accuracy of diagnostic tests for 3 major killer infectious diseases (TB, HIV/AIDS and malaria).

18 Nov 2009

Regulatory agencies offer marketing approval for new products to treat neglected diseases

New products to treat neglected diseases have received marketing approval from regulatory agencies at a steadily increasing rate in recent years as R&D funding for those diseases has increased, according to a recently completed study by the Tufts Center for the Study of Drug Development.

18 Nov 2009

Report calls for refocusing health spending in developing countries to save children's lives

"More than 24,000 infants die daily from preventable diseases in developing countries," and child deaths have fallen in countries where governments "have shown a high level of political leadership on child health," World Vision International said in a new report (.pdf) released on Monday as part of a five-year campaign to reduce child deaths worldwide, the Associated Press/San Francisco Chronicle reports.

17 Nov 2009

Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases announces targets

The Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases (GACD) on Monday outlined plans "to invest tens of millions of dollars in heart and lung disease studies in a battle against a global epidemic of chronic disease," over five years, Reuters reports.

17 Nov 2009

Global Alliance for Chronic Disease to fight against chronic non-communicable diseases

An alliance of institutions collectively managing an estimated 80 percent of all public health research funding worldwide today announced their first targets for concerted action in the fight against "chronic non-communicable diseases" (CNCDs).

17 Nov 2009

FDA's BPAC renders positive opinion on Phase III clinical trial of INTERCEPT Blood System

Cerus Corporation announced today that the FDA's Blood Products Advisory Committee (BPAC) rendered a positive opinion on the proposed hemostatic efficacy and safety endpoints for a potential U.S. Phase III clinical trial of the INTERCEPT Blood System for platelets.

17 Nov 2009

HDAC inhibitors: New therapy for treating breast cancer

A powerful new breast cancer treatment could result from packaging one of the newer drugs that inhibits cancer's hallmark wild growth with another that blocks a primordial survival technique in which the cancer cell eats part of itself, researchers say.

17 Nov 2009

Sterile Insect Technique can play a vital role in malaria elimination

The Sterile Insect Technique (SIT), the release of sexually sterile male insects to wipe out a pest population, is one suggested solution to the problem of malaria in Africa. A new supplement, published in BioMed Central's open access Malaria Journal, reviews the history of the technique, and features details about aspects of its application in the elimination of malaria.

16 Nov 2009

Also in Global Health News: HIV/AIDS in Uganda; medical equipment in Tanzania; birth control in Afghanistan; Ethiopia malaria fight

"The Uganda AIDS Commission (UAC) is revamping its national HIV information campaign after HIV prevention messages were less successful than hoped," PlusNews reports. "Campaigns aimed at ending cross-generational sex will be abandoned in favour of generic warnings about engaging in risky sex because of fears that young people may believe that sex within their own generation is risk-free. Officials have also said factors such as alcohol abuse, which predispose people to risky sexual behaviour, must be tackled alongside HIV prevention" (11/16).

16 Nov 2009

Sterile Insect Technique: A solution to the problem of malaria in Africa

16 Nov 2009

Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

News outlets examine malaria drug resistance, hope for malaria eradication in Africa

Antimalarial drug resistance endangers malarial control measures

Researchers to discover new vaccine against infection from Lyme disease

Pfizer,DNDi partner to Identify NTD drugs; Sanofi-Aventis, medicines for malaria launch drug study

Op-Eds: HIV travel ban; improving sanitation; counterfeit drugs

New online tool launched to encourage donations and fight global hunger

Malaria experts urge Congress to increase funding for malaria programs

Pfizer and DNDi to battle against HAT, VL and Chagas disease

Opinions: Fighting TB; currency transaction tax

MSF's volunteer physicians receive free access to Elsevier's electronic CDS tool

Accurate diagnostic tests required to fight against major infectious disease

Regulatory agencies offer marketing approval for new products to treat neglected diseases

Report calls for refocusing health spending in developing countries to save children's lives

Global Alliance for Chronic Diseases announces targets

Global Alliance for Chronic Disease to fight against chronic non-communicable diseases

FDA's BPAC renders positive opinion on Phase III clinical trial of INTERCEPT Blood System

HDAC inhibitors: New therapy for treating breast cancer

Sterile Insect Technique can play a vital role in malaria elimination

Also in Global Health News: HIV/AIDS in Uganda; medical equipment in Tanzania; birth control in Afghanistan; Ethiopia malaria fight

Sterile Insect Technique: A solution to the problem of malaria in Africa

From street to lab: Advancing controlled substance testing with handheld Raman and FTIR

Reimagining light scattering for biotherapeutics

Empowering genomics research with cloud-based innovation

Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

From street to lab: Advancing controlled substance testing with handheld Raman and FTIR

Reimagining light scattering for biotherapeutics

Empowering genomics research with cloud-based innovation

Newsletters you may be interested in