Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

Partners team up in Kenya to fights measles and malaria

The government of Kenya has launched a two-phase integrated measles vaccination campaign, targeting more than five million children between nine months and five years of age.

11 Jul 2006

Researchers identify gene used to recognize pathogens

Researchers at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health have identified a gene in the Anopheles gambiae mosquito's DNA that is central to the insect's ability to defend against infectious pathogens, including Plasmodium, the parasite that causes malaria in humans.

27 Jun 2006

Researchers identify gene used to recognize pathogens

Researchers have identified a gene in the Anopheles gambiae mosquito's DNA that is central to the insect's ability to defend against infectious pathogens, including Plasmodium, the parasite that causes malaria in humans.

20 Jun 2006

Bahamas malaria outbreak causes concern

A case of malaria which has cropped up in the Bahamas has caused concern and raised many questions for health officials and has worried local residents.

19 Jun 2006

Milstein gift seeks cure for antibiotic-resistant TB and malaria

A $7.25 million gift to Weill Medical College of Cornell University will establish the Abby and Howard P. Milstein Chemistry Core Facility and the Abby and Howard P. Milstein Program in Chemical Biology.

5 Jun 2006

Nepalese Rhesus monkeys may provide new alternative for HIV/AIDS research

Rhesus monkeys in Nepal may provide a suitable alternative to alleviate a critical shortage of laboratory animals used in work to develop vaccines against diseases such as HIV/AIDS.

1 Jun 2006

Urgent changes are needed at the World Health Organization

Urgent changes are needed at the World Health Organization (WHO) to revitalise its role as global public-health agency

30 May 2006

WHO suffers tragic loss of a visionary leader

The Director-General of the World Health Organisation, Dr. Lee Jong-wook of South Korea, has died suddenly following surgery for a blood clot on the brain.

22 May 2006

Malaria study goes to the desert

Scientists studying malaria-carrying mosquitoes and the effects of the disease on people are about to undertake a unique experiment in West Africa.

17 May 2006

Critics say expert's figure of 350,000 Russians with HIV an underestimation

Russia is experiencing a burgeoning epidemic as HIV/AIDS continues to spread beyond the ranks of drug users, gay men and prostitutes, into the larger population.

16 May 2006

Malaria - the left hand doesn't know what the right hand is doing!

The World Health Organisation (WHO) is quite rightly patting itself on the back because it has persuaded as many as 13 drug companies to abandon the marketing and promotion of monotherapy in the treatment of Malaria.

16 May 2006

Thanks to WHO effective combo malaria therapy will be de-rigueur

Following pressure from the World Health Organization (WHO), 13 pharmaceutical companies have agreed to comply with their recommendation that single-drug artemisinin medicines for the oral treatment of malaria need to be phased out.

15 May 2006

Study holds promise for malarial susceptibility test

Cell and animal studies conducted jointly by scientists at Johns Hopkins, Yale and other institutions have uncovered at least one important contributor to the severe anemia that kills almost half of the 2 million people worldwide who die each year of malaria.

12 May 2006

c-myc gene found to play role in immune system

c-myc, a gene commonly involved in cancer onset, has been found to have a role in the immune system's normal function according to a study published in Blood.

11 May 2006

Discovery of new type of cell that generates crucial immune system cells

A new type of cell that generates crucial cells of the immune system has been discovered at The Walter and Eliza Hall Institute.

8 May 2006

Protein produced by immune cells during malaria infection triggers severe anemia

Richard Bucala and colleagues at Yale University show that immune cells in mice with malaria secrete a protein called MIF, which decreases the production of red blood cells (RBCs) from the bone marrow. The study appears in The Journal of Experimental Medicine.

3 May 2006

Method by which Caspase-12 shuts down the body's immune system discovered

Caspase-12 is a molecule with a death-wish. Found only in people of African descent, this protein shuts down our body's immune system, opening the door to potentially lethal infections. In a groundbreaking new study published in the prestigious journal Nature this week, the team that first discovered the role of caspase-12 in humans has now uncovered the mechanism by which it sabotages us, allowing researchers to develop methods to counter its damaging effects.

28 Apr 2006

Potential vaccine for visceral leishmaniasis developed

Development of a fundamentally new "candidate," or potential, vaccine for visceral leishmaniasis (LEASH-ma-NIGH-a-sis), a parasitic disease that kills about 60,000 people annually, is reported in the current issue of ACS Chemical Biology. Spread by the bite of infected female sand flies, visceral leishmaniasis infects about 500,000 people annually, with the majority of cases occurring in India, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sudan and Brazil.

26 Apr 2006

"Malaria free Aceh" campaign launches in Indonesia

Everyone has experienced it - the buzzing sound of mosquitoes interrupting a restful night's sleep. In Indonesia's Aceh province, the hardest-hit area of the 2005 catastrophic tsunami, mosquitoes are more than just an annoyance. They carry a deadly disease - malaria.

19 Apr 2006