Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

CDC experts sent to Angola to help with Marburg epidemic

In an effort to control the Marburg virus outbreak in Angola, Health officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta will assist the World Health Organization by going to Angola to help with outbreak investigation, infection control and laboratory diagnosis of the disease.

30 Mar 2005

Democratic Republic of Congo on alert for Marburg epidemic

Health officials in Angola are saying the outbreak of the Ebola-like Marburg virus has claimed a record toll of 126, but the government said the number of dead was lower.

29 Mar 2005

Vaccine prevents deadly pneumonia in African children

Global health leaders today presented new research showing that vaccinating infants against Streptococcus pneumoniae -- a bacterium that causes deadly pneumonia, meningitis and sepsis -- could substantially reduce death and serious illness among children in the developing world. If used widely, a pneumococcal conjugate vaccine could prevent hundreds of thousands of child deaths each year.

28 Mar 2005

New therapy for treating cat allergies looks promising

Andrew Saxon, M.D., and a team of researchers at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) have found that a molecule designed to block cat allergies can prevent allergic reactions in laboratory mice and was also successful when tested on human cells in a test tube.

28 Mar 2005

New estimates of the causes of child mortality worldwide

Seventy-three percent of the 10.6 million child deaths worldwide each year are the result of six causes: pneumonia, diarrhea, malaria, neonatal sepsis, preterm delivery and asphyxia at birth.

28 Mar 2005

Most accurate estimates of the causes of child deaths to date

The most accurate estimates of the causes of child deaths to date, published in this week’s issue of The Lancet, reveal that worldwide more than 70% of the 10·6 million child deaths that occur annually are attributable to six causes: pneumonia (19%), diarrhoea (18%), malaria (8%), neonatal sepsis or pneumonia (10%), preterm delivery (10%), and asphyxia at birth (8%).

28 Mar 2005

African genome research given impetus

Millions of victims in Africa, die each year from preventable diseases like tuberculosis and malaria and researchers say only a relatively small proportion of money is spent on developing vaccines, much more is spent on drugs aimed at tackling diseases more prevalent among rich, Western consumers.

21 Mar 2005

African malaria comes to town

First, the bad news: urban malaria in Africa is becoming a major health problem and looks set to get worse.

17 Mar 2005

How are choices for healing performances related to religious change and gender?

Who has made Mama Raja ill? Was it witchcraft, evil spirits, malaria or God's punishment? Dutch researcher Ien Courtens discovered that in the interior of the Bird's Head of West Papua, the presumed cause of the illness determines the choice of treatment.

16 Mar 2005

Better air onboard reduces spread of disease on aircrafts

The spread of infectious diseases in-flight, can possibly be reduced by increasing ventilation within aircraft cabins, suggests a review published in this week’s issue of The Lancet.

13 Mar 2005

Half a billion cases of malaria occur each year

An international team of specialists in tropical medicine say at least half a billion cases of malaria occur each year, nearly 50% more than current estimates by World Health Organisation (WHO).

9 Mar 2005

Measles deaths halved

Dr LEE Jong-wook, World Health Organization (WHO) Director-General, has congratulated countries for their successful efforts in protecting children from measles.

7 Mar 2005

Government is treating the symptoms and not fighting the causes of infectious diseases

The Microbiology Awareness Campaign gathered momentum this week at the House of Lords when scientists informed Peers and MPs that new and re-emerging infectious diseases could spell trouble if not tackled soon.

3 Mar 2005

Lancet neonatal survival series

Three million of the four million newborn babies who die worldwide each year could be saved by low-tech and low-cost interventions, concludes a landmark series of articles published online by The Lancet (Thursday March 3, 2005).

3 Mar 2005

Liquorice - the black stuff we love to eat, may help prevent cancer

Liquorice - the black stuff we love to eat, contains a compound - glycyrrhizic acid which may stop people with a herpes virus from developing cancer.A research team at New York University found the compound - glycyrrhizic acid - possibly has the ability to stop the virus triggering a form of cancer called Kaposi sarcoma.

2 Mar 2005

Molecule from South American tree Quillaja, helps battle disease

The first synthesis of QS-21A, a medicinally important molecule that helps the body battle disease, has been achieved by chemists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

1 Mar 2005

Medical Services International signs $25 mil Chinese contract

Medical Services International has announced that it has signed a $25,500,000 US contract to supply the VScan HIV test kit in the People's Republic of China.

1 Mar 2005

Patent-based regulation of genetic resources could undermine health in developing countries

The Australian APEC Study Centre has released a report showing how proposals for a patent-based regime to regulate access to genetic resources could inhibit efforts to protect biodiversity and undermine health in developing countries.

14 Feb 2005

Simple drug has the potential to save many lives threatened by malaria

A simple drug, given to children with severe malaria before they reach hospital, has the potential to save many lives, say researchers in this week's BMJ.

10 Feb 2005

Artemisinin could selectively kill cancer cells while leaving normal cells unharmed

Researchers at the University of Washington have blended the past with the present in the fight against cancer, synthesizing a promising new compound from an ancient Chinese remedy that uses cancer cells' rapacious appetite for iron to make them a target.

9 Feb 2005