As floods continued to ravage the south of Pakistan last week, health workers have expressed concern about the rise in the number of suspected malaria cases that have been reported. World Health Organization data show that 3.7 million people have been treated in areas affected by the floods since they began on 29 July. The cases include just over 500000 of acute diarrhoea (13% of the total number of cases), 520000 of acute respiratory infection (14%), 693000 of skin infections (19%), and 94000 of suspected malaria.

5/09/2010  from BMJ     Read More

François Nosten has built an unmatched international resume in malaria. The Shoklo Malaria Research Unit, which he founded 25 years ago on the politically sensitive and occasionally violent border between Thailand and Myanmar, formerly Burma, not only provides basic health services to tens of thousands of poor people, but it's also one of the most respected and prolific clinical malaria research centers in the world. With more than 230 published papers, including co-authorship of a report on page 1175 of this issue of Science, Nosten ranks as one of the 10 most-cited researchers in his field.

5/09/2010  from Science     Read More

Scientists have identified new scent receptors in mosquitoes that could help develop more agents to lure, repel and kill the insects.

3/09/2010 4:40:58 PM  from SciDevNet     Read More

Scientists have discovered a promising new drug candidate that represents a new class of drug to treat malaria. Clinical trials for the compound are planned for later this year.

2/09/2010  from Science Daily     Read More

The malaria mosquito needs more than one family of odor sensors to sniff out its human prey, new research suggests. New research provides striking new evidence that Anopheles gambiae -- the species of mosquito that spreads malaria that infects some 250 million and kills 900,000 people annually -- has a second set of olfactory sensors that are fundamentally different from the set of sensors that scientists have known about and have been studying for the last 10 years.

1/09/2010 8:00:00 AM  from Science Daily     Read More

The mosquito-borne disease malaria is often associated with countries with high poverty rates - especially those in the tropics. And it's no different in Papua New Guinea, where more than a million people are infected every year - that's one in every six people. Population Services International or PSI PNG says up to 600 people die from malaria annually. The ongoing problem has prompted a fresh approach from PSI - which in 2009 received a two-year funding from the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria. It's now seeking bids from creative agencies to design a mass media campaign targeting rural communities - particularly people caring for children under five years old.

1/09/2010  from ABC Radio Australia     Read More

The slogan of the 63rd UN conference on health which opens in a few hours here in Melbourne is 'Making Health Global' and covers everything from the role NGOs and civil society play in achieving the Millennium Development Goals to sport, nutrition and healthy children.

1/09/2010  from ABC Radio Australia     Read More

August 18, 2010 In a move to accelerate the development of a malaria vaccine candidate against the second most serious malaria-causing parasite, Plasmodium vivax, the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI) announces a collaboration with the Walter Reed Army Institute of Research (WRAIR), the US Army Medical Materiel Development Activity (USAMMDA), and GlaxoSmithKline Biologicals (GSK Bio). The partners are working to conduct a Phase 1/2a clinical trial of a vaccine approach, using the protein VMP001 developed by researchers at WRAIR, formulated with the Adjuvant System AS01 developed by GSK Bio and used in the candidate RTS,S P. falciparum vaccine, now in late-stage Phase 3 clinical testing in infants in a number of African countries. VMP001 is a modified, full-length circumsporozoite protein from the P. vivax parasite. The early-stage trial will consist of a preliminary evaluation of the safety and efficacy of this potential vaccine candidate.

25/08/2010 9:12:17 AM  by Melanie Holesgrove     Read More

A Canberra scientist who has made a breakthrough in the fight to revive the effectiveness of anti-malarial wonder drug chloroquine is one of three women honoured with a $20,000 L'Oreal Australia fellowship for women in science.

25/08/2010  from Brisbane Times     Read More

Fire up the citronella-scented tiki torches, and slather on the DEET: Everybody knows these simple precautions repel insects, notably mosquitoes, whose bites not only itch and irritate, but also transmit diseases such as West Nile virus, malaria and dengue. Now, scientists have discovered what it is in the bugs' molecular makeup that enables citronellal (the aromatic liquid used in lotions, sprays and candles) and DEET, to deter insects from landing and feeding on you.

25/08/2010  from Science Daily     Read More

Fire up the citronella-scented tiki torches, and slather on the DEET: Everybody knows these simple precautions repel insects, notably mosquitoes, whose bites not only itch and irritate, but also transmit diseases such as West Nile virus, malaria and dengue. Now, scientists have discovered what it is in the bugs' molecular makeup that enables citronellal (the aromatic liquid used in lotions, sprays and candles) and DEET, to deter insects from landing and feeding on you.

25/08/2010  from Science Daily     Read More

A naturally occurring virus in mosquitoes may serve as a "late-life-acting" insecticide by killing older adult mosquitoes that are responsible for the bulk of malaria transmission.

21/08/2010 2:00:00 PM  from Science Daily     Read More

In research published this week in PLoS Medicine Stephen Lim and colleagues (University of Washington) systematically estimate the changes in distribution of insecticide-treated bed nets (ITNs) across Africa between 2000 and 2008, and find that several countries have managed to scale up their ITN coverage from near zero to more than 60 percent.

17/08/2010  from Science Daily     Read More

Scientists have produced a new antimalarial drug that is more chemically stable in the body than current malaria treatments.

16/08/2010  from Science Daily     Read More

The latest World Malaria Report (2009) brought much good news in terms of the global progress in malaria control. So did recent reviews on the changing burden of malaria in Africa and the progress achieved since the signing of the Abuja declaration in 2000. Optimism reigns to such extent that the words "elimination" and "eradication" are now liberally used within the global malaria community. Jobin's book, however, serves as a contrasting wake-up call, and tries to shed light on what he claims to be "the mess we are currently making in Africa".

15/08/2010  from Parasites & Vectors     Read More

If mice are administered an antibiotic for three days and are simultaneously infected with malaria, no parasites appear in the blood and life-threatening disease is averted. In addition, the animals treated in this manner also develop robust, long-term immunity against subsequent infections, according to new research.

13/08/2010 5:00:00 AM  from Science Daily     Read More

Ambitious international goals to eliminate malaria will fail without new tools, a model predicts.

12/08/2010 5:36:49 PM  from SciDevNet     Read More

Current tools for combating malaria, such as artemisinin-combination therapy and increasing coverage of long-lasting insecticide bednets can result in major reductions in Plasmodium falciparum malaria transmission and the associated disease burden in Africa.

12/08/2010 5:00:00 AM  from Science Daily     Read More

A neglected parasite that causes a milder form of malaria is of wide concern, reports the team that has mapped it for the first time.

11/08/2010 5:29:07 PM  from SciDevNet     Read More

Current tools for combating malaria, such as artemisinin-combination therapy and increasing coverage of long-lasting insecticide bednets can result in major reductions in Plasmodium falciparum malaria transmission and the associated disease burden in Africa.

10/08/2010  from Science Daily     Read More

Researchers developed techniques to quickly identify evolution of drug resistance in strains of malaria. Their goal is to enable the medical community to react quickly to inevitable resistance and thereby save lives while increasing the lifespan of drugs used against the disease.

9/08/2010 8:00:00 PM  from Science Daily     Read More

A new study of the prevalence of the malaria parasite Plasmodium vivax shows that it is more widespread and potentially represents a greater burden on human health in some parts of the world than P falciparum, the species usually associated with the greatest mortality and morbidity. A new evidence based global distribution map of P vivax estimates that 2.85 billion people lived at risk of infection with this parasite in 2009, predominantly in east and central Asia (PLoS Neglected Tropical Diseases, doi:10.1371/journal.pntd.0000774). The study, conducted as part of the Malaria Atlas Project, a multinational research collaboration funded mainly by the Wellcome Trust, challenges the idea that P vivax transmission does not occur in large swathes of Africa. It used novel methods, including developing new global maps of Duffy negativity, which confers partial protection against P vivax.

9/08/2010  from BMJ     Read More

A global commitment to malaria eradication must also involve a long-term commitment to vector ecology. This is the message of the authors of a Policy Forum article published in this week's PLoS Medicine, who emphasize that malaria eradication efforts will not be successful until a better understanding of the ecology and evolution of the mosquito vectors is gained.

6/08/2010  from Medical News Today     Read More

A single course of common antibiotics triggers the immune system to protect against malaria infection, say researchers.

5/08/2010 5:16:30 PM  from SciDevNet     Read More

While great advances have been made in the lab, GM mosquitoes are still a long way from being airborne, reports Katherine Nightingale.

5/08/2010 10:49:38 AM  from SciDevNet     Read More

A newly described metabolic pathway used by malaria-causing parasites may help them survive inside human blood cells. The finding clarifies the picture of parasite metabolism and provides clues to potential weak points in the pathway that might be attacked with drugs.

5/08/2010 2:00:00 AM  from Science Daily     Read More

High temperatures can help you fight infections - or make you much worse. Now doctors are learning when it's better to let a fever burn itself out

5/08/2010  from New Scientist     Read More

A laboratory that has opened in Bamako, Mali, is set to rear GM mosquitoes that could help wipe out malaria.

4/08/2010 5:30:00 PM  from SciDevNet     Read More

GM mosquitoes could help control malaria in Africa but their development must involve local scientists, write Paul Eggleston and Mamadou Coulibaly.

4/08/2010 5:30:00 PM  from SciDevNet     Read More

The 'momentous' decision by a drug company to release its data on anti-malarial drug discoveries has led to a catalogue of possible drug candidates.

4/08/2010 5:30:00 PM  from SciDevNet     Read More