Category Archives: Malaria

History shows it will take more than technology and money to beat malaria

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Hopes of eradicating the disease by 2050 will fail unless we tackle the poverty and weak governance that allow it to thrive

The Lancet Commission on malaria eradication received widespread attention this week with its claim that the disease could be eradicated by 2050. This would be a very welcome achievement, as malaria currently kills about 435,000 people – predominantly children – each year.

The report argues that the key to eradicating malaria is the application of existing and new technology, coupled with £1.6bn extra annual funding. Unfortunately, this solution is unlikely to be successful because it fails to address the underlying causes of malaria: grinding poverty and state incapacity.

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Malaria breakthrough as scientists find ‘highly effective’ way to kill parasite

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Drugs derived from Ivermectin, which makes human blood deadly to mosquitoes, could be available within two years

Human trials of new antimalarial drugs are in the pipeline after Kenyan scientists successfully used bacteria to kill the parasite that causes the disease.

The Kenya Medical Research Institute (Kemri) and global health partners say the breakthrough could potentially lead to the development of a new class of drugs in less than two years.

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Burundi malaria outbreak at epidemic levels as half of population infected

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World Health Organization records 1,800 malaria deaths since start of year, almost equalling number of lives claimed by Ebola in DRC

A serious outbreak of malaria in Burundi has reached epidemic proportions, killing almost as many people as the Ebola crisis in the nearby Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The outbreak in the tiny Great Lakes country has infected almost half the total population, killing about 1,800 people since the beginning of the year.

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Drug-resistant malaria parasites ‘spreading aggressively’ across south-east Asia

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Up to 80% of the most common carriers of the disease are immune to the most common treatments, researchers find

Drug-resistant forms of malaria-causing parasites are spreading across south-east Asia leading to “alarmingly high” treatment failure rates of frontline medication, researchers have warned.

In twin studies published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, they revealed that in parts of Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia up to 80% of the most common malaria parasites were now resistant to the two most common antimalarial drugs.

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How Myanmar became an example to the world in the battle against malaria

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Once a malaria blackspot, Myanmar has used aid money to tackle the disease locally – an approach, say experts, from which other countries can learn

With a plastic case full of cheap medical supplies and only a few days’ training, Say Mu Phaw is on the verge of eliminating malaria from her village in south-eastern Myanmar’s Tanintharyi region.

Back in 2015, her first full year as a village health worker, 16 people came down with the disease in Mi Kyaung Hlaung, where roughly 600 residents live surrounded by mosquito-ridden tropical forests.

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Mosquito-killing spider juice offers malaria hope

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Scientists have genetically modified a fungus to make it produce the same lethal toxin as is found in the funnel web spider

A genetically modified fungus that kills malaria-carrying mosquitoes could provide a breakthrough in the fight against the disease, according to researchers.

Trials in Burkina Faso found that a fungus, modified so that it produces spider toxin, quickly killed large numbers of mosquitos that carry malaria.

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Argentina and Algeria stamp out malaria in ‘historic achievement’

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Improvements in detection, diagnosis and treatment hailed by World Health Organization as ‘a model for other countries’

Algeria and Argentina have been declared malaria-free by the World Health Organization, in what has been described as a “historic achievement” for both countries.

The declaration follows warnings that the global fight against malaria has slipped off track in recent years, with cases rising in many of the countries worst affected by the disease.

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Malawi starts landmark pilot of first ever child malaria vaccine

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Immunisation gives partial protection against the killer disease, and lessens the severity of other cases

Malawi will begin immunising young children against malaria today, in a landmark large-scale pilot of the first vaccine to give partial protection against the disease, the World Health Organization said.

Although the vaccine protects only a third of children aged under two years from life-threatening or severe malaria, clinical trials have found those who are immunised are likely to have less severe cases of the disease. Earlier, smaller trials also showed the vaccine prevented four in 10 cases of malaria overall, in babies aged between five and 17 months.

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Venezuela crisis threatens disease epidemic across continent – experts

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Collapse of Venezuela’s healthcare system could fuel spread of malaria and other diseases across region

Experts have warned of an epidemic of diseases such as malaria and dengue on an unprecedented scale in Latin America following the collapse of the healthcare system in Venezuela.

Continent-wide public health gains of the last 18 years could be undone if Venezuela does not accept help to control the spreading outbreaks of malaria, Zika, dengue and other illnesses that are afflicting its people, experts have warned in a report published in the journal Lancet Infectious Diseases.

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Susan Pillsbury: Fight for foreign aid

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On a warm December day in 1995, I traveled to the University of New Hampshire campus in Durham to hear then-first lady Hillary Clinton speak. After hopping on a shuttle bus, I struck up a conversation with the woman seated next to me, a smart, vibrant and young state senator.

Dalton Enters Into Agreement With the USAMMDA in Support of the US Army’s Drug Development Program

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Dalton entered into an Agreement with the US Army Medical Materiel Development Activity and will provide cGMP sterile powder filling, aseptic liquid filling, and ICH stability testing in support of the US Army's anti-malarial drug development program. The leadership role taken by USAMMDA in the development of this important therapy for malaria treatment is to be commended, and we are privileged to support this drug development program said Peter Pekos, President and CEO of Dalton.

From the CIA to the GFE

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The United States needs to shift its spending from war to education, from CIA-backed regime change to a new Global Fund for Education . With hundreds of millions of children around the world not in school, or in schools with under-qualified teachers, a lack of computers, large class sizes, and no electricity, many parts of the world are headed for massive instability, joblessness, and poverty.