Malaria News and Research

Latest Malaria News and Research

A promising new strategy for malaria drug development

Malaria kills over 600,000 people a year, and as the climate warms, the potential range of the disease is growing. While some drugs can effectively prevent and treat malaria, resistance to those drugs is also on the rise.

29 Oct 2024

Diagnostic toolkit aims to improve response to Marburg virus cases

Viral hemorrhagic fevers (VHF) such as Marburg virus disease have been in the news recently, with more than 60 cases of Marburg confirmed in Rwanda.

26 Oct 2024

Deforestation drives a surge in malaria cases in the Amazon

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon is linked to a rise in malaria cases, with a 1% increase in deforestation leading to a 6.3% spike in cases the following month. This relationship is strongest in highly forested and indigenous areas.

23 Oct 2024

Maternal antibodies may hinder malaria vaccine effectiveness in infants

Maternal antibodies passed across the placenta can interfere with the response to the malaria vaccine, which would explain its lower efficacy in infants under five months of age, according to research led by the Barcelona Institute for Global Health (ISGlobal), in collaboration with seven African centers (CISM-Mozambique, IHI-Tanzania, CRUN-Burkina Faso, KHRC-Ghana, NNIMR-Ghana, CERMEL-Gabon, KEMRI-Kenya).

23 Oct 2024

Egypt achieves historic malaria-free certification

The World Health Organization (WHO) has certified Egypt as malaria-free, marking a significant public health milestone for a country with more than 100 million inhabitants.

21 Oct 2024

Novel method boosts MSC efficacy for articular cartilage repair

Researchers from the Critical Analytics for Manufacturing Personalized-Medicine (CAMP) Interdisciplinary Research Group (IRG) at Singapore-MIT Alliance for Research and Technology (SMART), MIT’s research enterprise in Singapore, alongside collaborators from the National University of Singapore Tissue Engineering Programme (NUSTEP), have developed a novel method to enhance the ability of mesenchymal stromal cells (MSCs) to generate cartilage tissue by adding ascorbic acid (AA) during MSC expansion.

18 Oct 2024

Brazil-Italy joint lab focuses on Alzheimer’s drug development

A self-proclaimed Brazil-Italy collaboration enthusiast, researcher Laura Bolognesi created the B2AlzD2 Joint Lab at the Department of Pharmacy and Biotechnology of the Università di Bologna (UNIBO), the first Brazil-Bologna joint laboratory dedicated to the development of new drugs for the treatment of Alzheimer's disease.

17 Oct 2024

Climate change: A growing threat to emergency response

International experts in emergency medicine have warned that climate change is likely to have a severe impact on emergency services around the world. Despite this, few countries have assessed the scale of the impact or have a plan to deal with it.

13 Oct 2024

Research reveals misleading practices in alcohol industry apps

Alcohol industry-funded apps may use covert 'misinformation strategies', omit important public health information and could 'nudge' users towards drinking more alcohol, new research has found.

12 Oct 2024

Surge in malaria cases linked to aircraft-transported mosquitoes

Malaria cases resulting from bites of mosquitoes transported by aircraft from areas where is common have increased, according to both a retrospective analysis in France and a systematic review of studies in Europe, which have been published in Eurosurveillance.

10 Oct 2024

WHO report highlights the role of vaccines in reducing antibiotic use

A new report by the World Health Organization (WHO) finds that vaccines against 24 pathogens could reduce the number of antibiotics needed by 22% or 2.5 billion defined daily doses globally every year, supporting worldwide efforts to address antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

10 Oct 2024

Increasing cases of mosquito-borne diseases call for greater awareness

The hospitalization last summer of Dr. Anthony Fauci, former head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, with West Nile virus – and his account of it this week in the New York Times – have helped raise public awareness of the dangers of mosquito borne-illness, which can range from Zika and malaria to dengue and West Nile virus.

8 Oct 2024

Study highlights rising rates of tick-borne parasitic disease in the United States

Rates of babesiosis, a tick-borne parasitic disease, increased an average of 9% per year in the United States between 2015 and 2022 and four in 10 patients were found to be co-infected with another tick-borne illness such as Lyme disease, according to a new study led by researchers at Penn State Health Milton S. Hershey Medical Center and Penn State College of Medicine.

8 Oct 2024

Oropouche virus spreads in South America as scientists warn of potential outbreaks in the U.S.

Researchers review the reemergence and range expansion of Oropouche virus in South America, highlighting risks of spread to the U.S. and need for improved diagnostic tests. Over 9,000 cases and two deaths were reported in 2024.

4 Oct 2024

Uncovering the secrets of malaria parasite cell division

A team of scientists at the University of Nottingham, have uncovered how the parasite that causes malaria orchestrates their cell division – which is key in enabling the parasite to transmit this deadly disease.

1 Oct 2024

Study shows gradual waning of MMR vaccine effectiveness over time

The MMR vaccine remains the best protection against measles, according to a modelling study in England which suggests the level of protection decreases slightly over time.

27 Sep 2024

New drug MED6-189 shows promise against drug-resistant malaria

In 2022, nearly 619,000 global deaths due to malaria were caused by Plasmodium falciparum, the most virulent, prevalent, and deadly human malaria parasite.

26 Sep 2024

Antibiotic resistance threatens millions of lives worldwide

More than 39 million people around the world could die from antibiotic-resistant infections over the next 25 years, according to a study published in The Lancet.

18 Sep 2024

Survey reveals significant gaps in global pandemic preparedness

Abbott announced the findings of a new survey; among leading infectious disease experts around the world on the state of pandemic preparedness and found that while most agree that preparation has improved since the COVID-19 pandemic, respondents say significant gaps remain in building surveillance programs to identify emerging pathogens, public health funding and having adequate testing infrastructure capabilities.

18 Sep 2024

Cancer patients face increased risk of long-term mental health problems

People diagnosed with cancer are at a greater risk of mental health problems even five years after their diagnosis, according to a large-scale study of data from UK GP patient records.

17 Sep 2024