News
9th March 2010
WHO RELEASES NEW MALARIA GUIDELINES FOR TREATMENT AND PROCUREMENT OF MEDICINES
The World Health Organization (WHO) is releasing new guidelines for the treatment of malaria, and the first ever guidance on procuring safe and efficacious anti-malarial medicines. In recent years a new type of treatment called artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACTs) has transformed the treatment of malaria, but if not used properly the medicine could become ineffective. The Guidelines for...
1st March 2010
Can we really eradicate malaria?
Bill Gates and Stephen O'Brien believe we can eradicate malaria within their lifetimes - at least as long as they both live to be 100. Gates needs no introduction. O'Brien is the chairman of the all-party parliamentary committee on malaria in the UK. He is much the same age as Gates, he tells me, though there probably the resemblance ends. He is a health spokesman in David Cameron's party and may...
1st March 2010
Launch of UK APPMG Sixth Report - Control of Malaria 2005-15: progess and priorities towards eradication
UK All-Party Parliamentary Group on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases launches its sixth and final report: Control of Malaria 2005-15: Progress and Priorities towards Elimination. The report, authored by Professor David Schellenberg, of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, summarizes evidence presented to the committee over the last two years. Dr Margaret Chan, Director...
16th February 2010
Malaria Is a Likely Killer in King Tut’s Post-Mortem
King Tutankhamen, the boy pharaoh, was frail and lame and suffered “multiple disorders” when he died at age 19 about 1324 B.C., but scientists have now determined the most likely agents of death: a severe bout of malaria combined with a degenerative bone condition. The researchers said that to their knowledge “this is the oldest genetic proof of malaria in precisely dated mummies.” Several other...
15th February 2010
Private Sector and PMI Join Forces, Strengthen Angola’s Capacity to Control Mosquitoes
Luanda, Angola - Top global companies and the President's Malaria Initiative are working with the Government of Angola on an intensive technical training program to arm the country's malaria fighters with state-of-the-art mosquito surveillance and vector control techniques. By aiding the sharing of these comprehensive technical skills and best practices in mosquito monitoring and evaluation, as...
15th February 2010
Private Sector and PMI Join Forces, Strengthen Angola’s Capacity to Control Mosquitoes
Luanda, Angola - Top global companies and the President's Malaria Initiative are working with the Government of Angola on an intensive technical training program to arm the country's malaria fighters with state-of-the-art mosquito surveillance and vector control techniques. By aiding the sharing of these comprehensive technical skills and best practices in mosquito monitoring and evaluation, as...
10th February 2010
High proportions of malaria drugs are found to be substandard
TropIKA.net: Medicines for malaria are amongst the drugs most commonly found in counterfeit or substandard form. The first results of a major study in Africa have confirmed the extent of this problem. In Senegal, 44% of antimalarials were found to be substandard. In the two other countries from which data is so far available – Madagascar and Uganda – the percentages of substandard products were...
8th January 2010
Drug procurement, the Global Fund and misguided competition policies
Artemisinin-combination therapies (ACTs) provide an effective treatment for most cases of malaria but these life-saving drugs are still not reaching the majority of the people who need them. This is particularly the case in Africa, where frequent “stock outs” of ACTs and other drugs threaten to make a mockery of official treatment guidelines. The factors that lead to stock outs clearly need – but...
3rd January 2010
Dar to track supply of malaria drugs via SMS
By J. MWAMUNYANGE, The East African A pilot drugs supply management project called “SMS for Life” has Tanzania authorities excited over its potential. The project, which brings together IBM, Novartis, Vodafone and the Roll Back Malaria Partnership, taps into a combination of smart technologies to track and manage the supply of anti-malarial drugs. The concept is the brainchild of students...
28th December 2009
New York Times reports New Form of Malaria Threatens Thai-Cambodia Border
by Martha Mendoza, New York Times: PAILIN, Cambodia (AP) -- O'treng village doesn't look like the epicenter of anything. Just off a muddy rutted-out road, it is nothing more than a handful of Khmer-style bamboo huts perched crookedly on stilts, tucked among a tangle of cornfields once littered with deadly land mines. Yet this spot on the Thai-Cambodian border is home to a form of malaria that...
21st December 2009
Gains against malaria large but fragile, says new report
Major increases in international funding for malaria are responsible for the scale-up of highly successful interventions over the past several years, especially insecticide-treated bed nets, says a new report published last week by the World Health Organization. Still, as of 2008, half of the world’s population was at risk of infection, and an estimated 243 million cases led to an estimated 863,...
15th December 2009
WHO issues World Malaria Report 2009
The World Health Organization issued the 2009 World Malaria Report, stating that half of the world's population is at risk of malaria, and an estimated 243 million cases led to nearly 863 000 deaths in 2008. The advent of long-lasting insecticidal nets and artemisinin-based combination therapy, plus a revival of support for indoor residual spraying of insecticide, presents a new opportunity for...
11th December 2009
ACTwatch results released
ACTwatch has released results of antimalarial availability from outlet surveys, supply chain surveys, and household surveys from 19 countries. http://www.actwatch.info/results/overview.asp?
11th December 2009
Effectiveness of combined intermittent preventive treatment for children and timely home treatment for malaria control
While awaiting for the arrival of an effective and affordable malaria vaccine, there is a need to make use of the available control tools to reduce malaria risk, especially in children under five years and pregnant women. Intermittent preventive treatment (IPT) has recently been accepted as an important component of the malaria control strategy. This study explored the potential of a strategy of...
16th November 2009
Global Fund Sets $2.4 Billion To Fight Against AIDS, Malaria, TB
from Windsor Genova, AHN News Writer: Addis Ababa, Ethiopia (AHN) - The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria has set a $2.4 billion grant to implement its program in the next two years. "These grants enable countries around the world to address some of the main problems they are struggling with every day," said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, Ethiopian Health Minister and Chair of...
14th November 2009
Low-cost malaria drug to combat fakes
PHNOM PENH, Cambodia (UPI) -- Inexpensive legitimate distribution of a leading malaria-fighting drug has begun in Asia to combat ineffective counterfeit medications, officials say. A strain of malaria on the Thailand-Cambodian border has become resistant to the drug artemisinin, the current treatment of the disease, Time magazine reported. The drug is derived from sweet wormwood, a naturally...
11th November 2009
Hyperparasitaemia and low dosing are an important source of anti-malarial drug resistance
from Malaria Journal: Preventing the emergence of anti-malarial drug resistance is critical for the success of current malaria elimination efforts. Prevention strategies have focused predominantly on qualitative factors, such as choice of drugs, use of combinations and deployment of multiple first-line treatments. The importance of anti-malarial treatment dosing has been underappreciated....
11th November 2009
Spatial risk profiling of Plasmodium falciparum parasitaemia in a high endemicity area in Côte d'Ivoire
from Malaria Journal: The objective of this study was to identify demographic, environmental and socioeconomic risk factors and spatial patterns of Plasmodium falciparum parasitaemia in a high endemicity area of Africa, and to specify how this information can facilitate improved malaria control at the district level. Methods A questionnaire was administered to about 4,000 schoolchildren in 55...
3rd November 2009
Why ACTs aren’t reaching those most in need
from Patrick Adams, TropIKA.net: Almost five years after artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) became the WHO-recommended frontline treatment for malaria, the drug is still not reaching the populations most at risk of infection, according to new data released by ACTWatch, a research project led by Population Services International (PSI) in collaboration with the London School of Hygiene and...
1st November 2009
World’s Largest Malaria Conference Opens with Research Aimed at Eradication
The world's largest malaria conference opened today with a call for substantial and sustained support for research to guide evidence-based policies and the development of new malaria tools, which together could save countless lives. The 5th Multilateral Initiative on Malaria (MIM) Pan-African Conference brings together 2,000 researchers, health workers, public health officials, policymakers and...
19th October 2009
Malaria now a danger to children older than 5yrs
By DAGI KIMANI, The East African: Youngsters aged between 5-19 in regions like East Africa are now the most vulnerable group to malaria following the successful distribution of the free bednets to protect children under five and pregnant women against the killer fever, according to a new study. The study, funded by the Wellcome Trust and published in the free online journal BMC Public Health...
19th October 2009
MMV receives $115 million from Gates Foundation
from European Biotechnology Science & Industry News: The Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) has received $115 million from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The Geneva-based non-profit organisation is dedicated to tackling malaria worldwide, and to delivering affordable drugs to vulnerable populations. Stakeholders and contributors amongst others include the British National...
17th October 2009
Players Kick Off World Cup Anti - Malaria Fight
ZURICH (Reuters) - editing by Ken Ferris, New York Times: Footballers are teaming up with governments, companies and international health campaigners to push for action against malaria ahead of next year's World Cup finals in South Africa. The "United Against Malaria" campaign, which will start next month and run until the end of the World Cup, has won the backing of singer Bono, actress Ashley...
14th October 2009
Study in Mali, West Africa indicates possibility of vaccine-resistant malaria
from University of Maryland Medical Center: Researchers at the University of Maryland School of Medicine Center for Vaccine Development (CVD) have charted the extreme genetic differences that occur over time in the most dangerous malaria parasite in the world. While there is no approved vaccine for malaria, various experimental vaccines are in development. The CVD study suggests that developing a...
9th October 2009
Fake Malaria Drugs Spread, Breed Resistance to Lethal Parasite
from Simeon Bennett, Bloomberg.com: Fake malaria drugs from China are breeding resistance to life-saving medications in Cambodia and threatening to derail global efforts to eradicate the disease, a study funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation found. Among more than 700 packets of pills sold at private drugstores in Cambodia and Thailand, 60 percent were found to be substandard or...
26th September 2009
Ground shifts in malaria fight: Alan Cowman
from Helen Francombe, The Australian: This week there was international excitement over news that researchers had discovered how the malaria parasite resists the killing power of chloroquine, once the key drug in the war against the microbe. Because of work by an Australian National University team, there's hope the previously powerful drug can be redesigned to beat resistant strains of malaria,...
25th September 2009
Resistant malaria a concern, WHO says
from Jacob Gold, The Phnon Penh Post: A drug-resistant strain of malaria observed on the Cambodian-Thai border threatens to overturn decades of progress in the worldwide fight against the disease, doctors from the World Health Organisation (WHO) warned at a regional conference in Hong Kong on Wednesday. "Artemisinin-based combination therapy, the most effective antimalaria treatment to date, and...
23rd September 2009
African leaders launch new malaria alliance
from Paul Chinnock, TropIKA.net The leaders of 20 African nations, meeting in New York during the UN General Assembly, have launched ALMA (the African Leaders Malaria Alliance), in order to achieve a united approach in efforts to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) on malaria. According to these ambitious goals there will be universal access to malaria control interventions by the end of...
9th September 2009
BBC acknowldeges that P. knowlesi poses human threat
from BBC News: An emerging new form of malaria poses a deadly threat to humans, research has shown. It had been thought the parasite Plasmodium knowlesi infected only monkeys. But it has recently been found to be widespread in humans in Malaysia, and the latest study confirms that it can kill if not treated quickly. The work, by an international team, appears in the journal Clinical Infectious...
30th August 2009
Artemisinin-resistant Plasmodium falciparum: can the genie be put back in the bottle?
by Timothy Egan, Future Microbiology: The late 1980s and early 1990s saw what virtually amounted to an international malaria emergency in which the gains of the previous four decades in the fight against malaria were rapidly eroding. The spread of chloroquine resistance, as well as resistance to sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine, eliminated the two cheap, safe and effective options for treatment of the...
25th August 2009
PBS reports on drug resistance in Cambodia
from PBS News Hour: GWEN IFILL: Now, a story about the threat of drug-resistant malaria. Special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports for our Global Health Unit from the border region of Cambodia and Thailand. FRED DE SAM LAZARO, NewsHour correspondent: In the forests along Cambodia's border with Thailand, scientists have spotted early signs of drug-resistant malaria that could threaten...
25th August 2009
WWARN Chair honored as 2009 sanofi-aventis ICAAC Award Laureate
from American Society for Microbiology: Nicholas J. White, Professor, University of Oxford, United Kingdom and Mahidol University, Bangkok, and Chair, Wellcome Trust South East Asian Research Units, Bangkok, is honored with the 2009 sanofi-aventis ICAAC Award for his work on the pharmacological aspects of antimalarial drugs. Karen I. Barnes, University of Cape Town, South Africa, and a supporter...
24th August 2009
Institut Pasteur reports emergence of resistance in Madagascar
from Andriantsoanirina et al. Antimicrobial Agents & Chemotherapy P. falciparum drug resistance in Madagascar: facing the spread of unusual pfdhfr and pfmdr-1 haplotypes and the decrease of dihydroartemisinin susceptibility. Over the past decades, the emergence and subsequent spread of Plasmodium falciparum chloroquine (CQ)- and sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine (SP)-resistant parasites across...
20th August 2009
Homeopathy not a cure, says WHO
from BBC News: People with conditions such as HIV, TB and malaria should not rely on homeopathic treatments, the World Health Organization has warned. It was responding to calls from young researchers who fear the promotion of homeopathy in the developing world could put people's lives at risk. The group Voice of Young Science Network has written to health ministers to set out the WHO view....
19th August 2009
Metakelfin banned in Uganda due to resistance and counterfeits
By Alfred Nyongesa Wandera, Monitor News:Kampala The government has banned the use of the anti-malaria drug, Metakelfin. The head of the National Drug Authority (NDA) announced yesterday that the ban follows a change in the country's malaria treatment policy, in which Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies were adopted as first-line treatment for uncomplicated malaria. NDA boss Apollo Muhairwe...
7th August 2009
Researchers pile on evidence of artemisinin resistance at Thai-Cambodia border
by Tatum Anderson, TropIKA.net: A study published in the New England Journal of Medicine (NEJM) last week has confirmed that malaria parasites in patients living on the border between Cambodia and Thailand are showing signs of resistance to artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs). Researchers showed that patients with malaria in western Cambodia required almost double the amount of time -...
4th August 2009
Scientists Report Original Source Of Malaria
from ScienceDaily.com: UC Irvine biologist Francisco Ayala and colleagues think the deadly parasite was transmitted to humans from chimpanzees perhaps as recently as 5,000 years ago - and possibly through a single mosquito, genetic analyses indicate. Previously, malaria's origin had been unclear. This discovery could aid the development of a vaccine for malaria, which sickens about 500 million...
3rd August 2009
Substandard medicines: a neglected epidemic of poverty
by Paul Chinnock, TropIKA.net: It is very unlikely that the people responsible for making the teething mixture that caused the deaths of at least 34 children in Nigeria last year actually wanted to kill the victims of their inept efforts to produce a paracetamol syrup. Nevertheless, they used toxic diethylene glycol (DEG) as a solvent, instead of propylene glycol, with appalling consequences. All...
31st July 2009
Once again, it's 'Apocalypse Now' in Southeast Asia
by Robert Fortner, Crosscut.com: Domino theory is back in Southeast Asia. If newly drug-tolerant malaria triumphs in that region, it will spread inexorably, subverting all of Asia before wheeling south to engulf Africa. A world-wide eradication program began in 2007 - an epic undertaking that might require half a century to achieve. Now, malaria threatens to knock out today's first line of...
30th July 2009
Sock! Pow! Blam! Further adventures in the fight against malaria
by Robert Fortner, Crosscut.com: Today's arsenal for combating malaria is almost retro: bed nets, DDT, and drugs largely based on a fourth century Chinese anti-malarial. We lack a vaccine. Malaria parasites and mosquitoes have learned to sidestep the bombardment of insecticides and drugs, developing resistance through deft genetic twists. With its Grand Challenges Explorations research program,...
27th July 2009
Fake and Substandard Drugs Threaten Malaria Treatment in Cambodia
By Talea Miller, Online NewsHour:TASANH, CambodiaMany of the drugs are cheaply made and don't contain the right chemistry, or are stored at incorrect temperatures, while others are deliberate fakes that have authentic-looking pills and packaging but contain only a small percentage of the active ingredient in each pill. People in Cambodia are unknowingly using "improper drugs and fake drugs which...
27th July 2009
Malaria cases fall with each year of HIV treatment in Ugandan patients
by Keith Alcorn, Aidsmap news: Antiretroviral treatment was associated with a 75% decline in the incidence of malaria over four years in DART study participants, Ugandan and UK-based researchers reported last week at the Fifth International AIDS Society conference in Cape Town. People with HIV are at especially high risk of malaria when they have very low CD4 counts, and malaria may cause a...
20th July 2009
New Global Subsidy For Malaria Medicines Must Ensure Quality Of Care
from ScienceDaily: A new subsidy designed to increase access to life-saving antiretrovirals must remain focused on quality patient care if it is to succeed, argues Tido von Schoen-Angerer and colleagues in the open access journal PLoS Medicine. The subsidy, called the Affordable Medicines Facility-malaria (AMFm), will be rolled out in 2009 and is designed to address concerns of poor access to...
20th July 2009
Scientific Tools for War on Fake Drugs
by Thomas Fuller, New York Times: "Let's use some Atlanta drug money," said Facundo M. Fernández, a chemistry professor, as he picked out a limp, ratty dollar bill from his wallet and handed it to one of his graduate students. Minutes later, after running the bill through the laboratory's high-tech machinery, the chemists had found what they were looking for: traces of cocaine. Dr. Fern...
15th July 2009
Optimally timing primaquine treatment to reduce Plasmodium falciparum transmission in low endemicity Thai-Myanmar border populations
from Malaria Journal abstract: Effective malaria control has successfully reduced the malaria burden in many countries, but to eliminate malaria, these countries will need to further improve their control efforts. Here, a malaria control programme was critically evaluated in a very low-endemicity Thai-Myanmar border population, where early detection and prompt treatment have substantially reduced...
14th July 2009
Malaria drug-makers ignore WHO ban
from Declan Butler, Nature News: There is a growing risk that malaria parasites will develop resistance to artemisinin because almost half of both its manufacturers and malaria-affected countries are failing to comply with World Health Organization (WHO) demands to sell it only in combination with other drugs. Artemisinin and its derivatives are the leading treatments for the disease, being the...
10th July 2009
A Global Subsidy: Key To Affordable Drugs For Malaria?
from Ramanan Laxminarayan and Hellen Gelband, Health Affairs: The global fight against malaria has been continually challenged by poor access to affordable, effective medicine. Growing resistance to chloroquine, the traditional treatment, has worsened the situation. Artemisinins, the successor therapy to chloroquine, are at least ten times more costly than the older drug. In developing countries...
6th July 2009
Malaria drug passes major milestone
from Paul Chinnock, TropIKA.net: Improving the control of malaria, and moving towards its eventual elimination, is a global health priority, and effective treatment of the disease with artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) is a cornerstone of control programmes. The manufacturers of one ACT, Coartem, have announced that July 2009 will see the delivery of the 250 millionth dose of the treatment....
6th July 2009
Novartis joins malaria prevention group
from Hays Pharma: Novartis has become the first healthcare company to join a malaria consortium which aims to end all deaths caused by the disease in Africa by 2015. The pharmaceutical company announced its decision to join United Against Malaria (UAM) after the group's chairman and chief executive, Dr Daniel Vasella, delivered Novartis' 250 millionth malaria treatment to a hospital in Africa. Dr...
1st July 2009
Funding boost for African science from The Wellcome Trust
from Anjali Nayar, Nature News: The Wellcome Trust, the largest charity in the United Kingdom, has pledged £30 million (US$50 million) to support health research at more than 50 African institutions. The charity unveiled the grant package on 2 July. The money will be channelled through seven new international and pan-African consortia, each led by an African research institution, and spread...
23rd June 2009
Abdoulaye Djimdé receives Award of the Best Pharmacist in the Francophone World
from www.EDCTP.org: The National Academy of Pharmacy of France has awarded Dr Abdoulaye Djimdé its "Prix de la Pharmacie Francophone". Dr Djimdé is a research scientist from the Malaria Research and Training Center (MRTC), University of Bamako, and Malian EDCTP Senior Fellow. The prize is in recognition of his outstanding contribution within the Francophone community. The Award was presented to...
20th June 2009
Lancet: An assessment of interactions between global health initiatives and country health systems
from Paul Chinnock, TropIKA.net: It has often been alleged that the increased focus on three major infectious diseases - HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis - seen in recent years has damaged the health systems of poor countries and made it harder for them to provide care for patients suffering from other conditions. While many people have supported this claim, there has been a lack of data to...
12th June 2009
Malaria is more deadly than swine flu
from Mark Honigsbaum, guardian.co.uk: It is no mean feat to knock Ronaldo off the front pages, especially when the self-regarding Portuguese footballer has just broken the club record for a transfer fee. But yesterday the World Health Organisation's Margaret Chan achieved just that by declaring the first influenza pandemic in 40 years. Never mind that to date H1N1 swine flu has killed just 144...
10th June 2009
Malaria treatment initiative under attack
by Paul Chinnock, TropIKA.net: An initiative that aims to improve the availability of effective treatment for malaria to people in poor countries has come under attack from leading development agency Oxfam. The Affordable Medicine Facility was formally launched in April this year and is intended to expand access to the most effective treatment for malaria - artemisinin-based combination therapies...
7th June 2009
Malaria cases increase in Kibaale
from The New Vision, by Ismael Kasooha: Kagadi Hospital in Kibaale district has been overwhelmed by malaria patients. The medical superintendent, Dr. James Olowo, said even patients with simple malaria cases that would be treated at the health centres were going to the hospital. "Records show that the number of malaria patients has more than doubled compared to the same period last year. The...
1st June 2009
Parasite Species Found in Chimps Is Similar to Deadly Version in Humans
from Donald G. McNeil, Jr, New York Times: Researchers in Gabon and France have discovered a new species of malaria parasite, one that lives in chimpanzees but is closely related to the species most deadly to humans. The new species was described last week in the journal PLoS Pathogens. It was named Plasmodium gaboni, and it is closely related to Plasmodium falciparum, which causes more than a...
29th May 2009
Malaria parasites 'resist drugs'
from BBC News: International scientists say they have found the first evidence of resistance to the world's most effective drug for treating malaria. They say the trend in western Cambodia has to be urgently contained because full-blown resistance would be a global health catastrophe. Drugs are taking longer to clear blood of malaria parasites than before. This is an early warning sign of...
29th May 2009
New fears over anti-malaria drugs from BBC World Service
from the BBC World Service: Scientists working with the World Health Organisation say they have found the first evidence of resistance to the world's most effective anti-malaria drugs. The scientists say that until now the drugs, which are from the artemesinin family, cleared all malaria parasites from the blood within two or three days. But in recent trials, clearance sometimes took four or five...
28th May 2009
Fears for new malaria drug resistance
by Jill McGivering, BBC News Cambodia: In a small community in Western Cambodia, scientists are puzzling over why malaria parasites seem to be developing a resistance to drugs - and fearing the consequences. Ten days ago, Chhem Bunchhin, a teacher in Battambang Province, became ill with chills, fever, headache and vomiting. At a nearby health centre he was treated with drugs considered a "silver...
26th May 2009
Electronic Monitoring And Mapping Enables Malaria Management
From ScienceDaily.com: A Geographic Information System (GIS)-driven digital map of past and predicted malaria outbreak hotspots has been used in India as part of a national control program. Researchers describe the creation of the GIS and its implementation in the malaria-stricken Madhya Pradesh region. Aruna Srivastava and her team from India's National Institute of Malaria Research worked with...
26th May 2009
Malaria cases on the rise in Mumbai
From The Times of India: Mumbai: Malaria-related cases in the metropolis have shot up by as much as 47 per cent this year due to increased construction activities and high humidity levels. "Since January this year 6,300 malaria cases have been reported, an increase of nearly 47 per cent from 2,300 cases in the corresponding period last year," Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Assistant...
24th May 2009
Resistance and counterfeits in Southeast Asia may doom artemisinins
From Paul Chinnock, TropIKA.net: The antimalarial drug artemisinin - used in the form of artemisinin combination therapy (ACT) - is now the recommended treatment for malaria, replacing older drugs to which the malaria parasite is now resistant. At present there are no other drugs for malaria in the development "pipeline". But the appearance of resistance to artemisinin in Southeast Asia has been...
23rd May 2009
Malaria, Politics and DDT
from The Wall Street Journal: In 2006, after 25 years and 50 million preventable deaths, the World Health Organization reversed course and endorsed widespread use of the insecticide DDT to combat malaria. So much for that. Earlier this month, the U.N. agency quietly reverted to promoting less effective methods for attacking the disease. The result is a victory for politics over public health, and...
4th May 2009
A systematic review and meta-analysis of evidence for correlation between molecular markers of parasite resistance and treatment outcome in falciparum
from Malaria Journal: Background An assessment of the correlation between anti-malarial treatment outcome and molecular markers would improve the early detection and monitoring of drug resistance by Plasmodium falciparum. The purpose of this systematic review was to determine the risk of treatment failure associated with specific polymorphisms in the parasite genome or gene copy number. Methods...
4th May 2009
Indian company starts Phase III trials of synthetic artemisinin
from Ranbaxy.com: Gurgaon (India) Ranbaxy Laboratories Limited (Ranbaxy) today announced the commencement of Phase-III clinical trials for its new Anti-malaria combination drug, Arterolane maleate + Piperaquine phosphate in India, Bangladesh and Thailand. The drug is targeted at patients in developing countries with the aim of significantly improving upon the conventional options available for...
27th April 2009
Anti-malarial prescriptions in three health care facilities after the emergence of chloroquine resistance in Niakhar, Senegal (1992-2004)
from Malaria Journal: Background In the rural zone of Niakhar in Senegal, the first therapeutic failures for chloroquine (CQ) were observed in 1992. In 2003, the national policy regarding first-line treatment of uncomplicated malaria was modified, replacing CQ by a transitory bi-therapy amodiaquine/sulphadoxine-pyrimethamine (AQ/SP), before the implementation of artemisinin-based combination...
25th April 2009
Roll Back Malaria creates World Malaria Day site
from Roll Back Malaria: 25 April is a day of unified commemoration of the global effort to provide effective control of malaria around the world. This year's World Malaria Day marks a critical moment in time. The international malaria community has merely two years to meet the 2010 targets of delivering effective and affordable protection and treatment to all people at risk of malaria, as called...
18th April 2009
Discovery Of Variations In Resistance To Sulfadoxine Across Africa
from ScienceDaily - Researchers have discovered that malaria parasites in east and west Africa carry different resistance mutations, which suggests that the effectiveness of sulfadoxine as an antimalarial drug may vary across Africa.The findings have implications for the manner in which malaria control campaigns are carried out, and suggest that coordinating efforts between parts of Africa that...
17th April 2009
AMFm Subsidy Plan Seeks to Cut Malaria Drug Cost
See the MSF response to AMFm's announcement. By DONALD G. McNEIL Jr., New York Times A new campaign to save lives and prevent drug resistance by driving the price of the best malaria medicine down to as little as 20 cents was announced Friday by international health agencies and European governments. The subsidy program, unveiled in Norway, will have an initial budget of $225 million and will be...
14th April 2009
Mapping the Spread of Malaria Drug Resistance
from PLos Medicine, by Tim Anderson: Drug resistance is a recurrent theme in the history of infectious disease control. In the case of malaria, resistance to all but one of the five major classes of drugs is widespread [1]. Such resistance occurs because of the strong selection pressure associated with giving patients antimalarial drugs. The most effective way to stall resistance would therefore...
14th April 2009
Multiple Origins and Regional Dispersal of Resistant dhps in African Plasmodium falciparum Malaria
from PLoS Medicine: Background Although the molecular basis of resistance to a number of common antimalarial drugs is well known, a geographic description of the emergence and dispersal of resistance mutations across Africa has not been attempted. To that end we have characterised the evolutionary origins of antifolate resistance mutations in the dihydropteroate synthase (dhps) gene and mapped...
14th April 2009
Potential new antimalarial could both kill the parasite and overcome its resistance to other drugs
from Paul Chinook, TropIKA.net Researchers in the USA have reported encouraging results with the use of an acridone derivative against malarial parasites in vitro and in mice. In their study, published in Nature, they describe also their finding that the drug reverses the resistance the parasite has developed to other drugs, including chloroquine. The acridone derivative - T3.5 (3-chloro-6-(2-...
10th April 2009
China lays out plans to eliminate malaria by 2015
from China View: BEIJING, April 10 (Xinhua) -- China's Ministry of Health announced Friday it has mapped out a draft plan to largely eradicate malaria by the end of 2015. The major goal of the 2010-2015 plan is to reduce the incidence of malaria to below one confirmed case for every 10,000 people in the most seriously affected regions, and to zero in less affected areas. The plan requires local...
8th April 2009
AMFm procurement policy undermines mission
from MEDECINS SANS FRONTIERES, Geneva - A global malaria drug subsidy to be launched this month is failing to look at medical needs and is jeopardising the future of the most effective malaria treatments that exist today, according to the international medical humanitarian organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). The Affordable Medicines Facility for Malaria (AMFm) will...
8th April 2009
Randomized Trial of Artesunate+Amodiaquine, Sulfadoxine-Pyrimethamine+Amodiaquine, Chlorproguanal-Dapsone and SP for Malaria in Pregnancy in Tanzania
from PLoS Hub for Clinical Trials: Background Malaria in pregnancy is serious, and drug resistance in Africa is spreading. Drugs have greater risks in pregnancy and determining the safety and efficacy of drugs in pregnancy is therefore a priority. This study set out to determine the efficacy and safety of several antimalarial drugs and combinations in pregnant women with uncomplicated malaria....
30th March 2009
Chinese claim to be close to eliminating malaria from Indian Ocean island
from Paul Chinook, TropIKA.net Chinese scientists working in the island of Mohéli in Comoros say they have cut malaria infection rates from 22% to 2% in little over a year and expect soon to eliminate the disease there. However, the claim has been dismissed by Western scientists as "anecdotal" and there are concerns over the method used, which involves mandatory administration of...
26th March 2009
A Better Cure for Angola's Children
from ReliefWeb: Source: United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Maria José Inés has seen many patients with malaria over the years. Recently, she is seeing something different. As chief nurse at the Benfica Baixa Health Center in the city of Huambo, Maria has treated malaria patients with a wide range of medications. Recently, she has begun using artemether-...
26th March 2009
Fighting the spread of Artemisinin-resistant malaria
from IRIN News: BANGKOK, 26 March 2009 (IRIN) - Scientists and health workers are racing to contain a malaria strain along the Thai-Cambodia border that is becoming increasingly resistant to Artemisinin, the best drug available to fight it, experts say. Artemisinin, normally used in a combination therapy (ACT), has given hope in recent years that malaria can be eradicated worldwide. But a key...
24th March 2009
Malaria map reveals challenges and opportunities
by Paul Chinook, TropIKA.net: Researchers working on the Malaria Atlas Project(MAP) have published a paper describing their creation of a world map that shows the proportion of the population with parasites in their blood for the most severe type of malaria. It is over 40 years since an "endemicity" map of this kind was published. The MAP researchers believe that, "In an international policy...
24th March 2009
Nature News interview with Simon Hay
by Declan Butler, Nature News An international team of scientists today published the most detailed global maps of worldwide malaria prevalence ever compiled; maps they will update annually to track the progress of efforts to fight the disease. The maps show that nearly three-quarters of the 2.4 billion people at risk of infection with the deadliest form of malaria live in low risk areas, where...
23rd March 2009
Ethiopia will expand malaria control efforts
by Paul Chinook at TropIKA.net: Ethiopia's Health Minister Dr Twodros Adhanon says Ethiopia has been placed on high alert for a major malaria outbreak. Experience has shown that malaria cases in the country hit peak levels once every five to eight years. The last such year was 2003 and so another could be due this year. Ethiopia is determined to be ready should there be a surge in case numbers....
22nd March 2009
Army scales back use of anti-malaria drug
By Kelly Kennedy - Staff writer at www.armytimes.comPosted : Sunday Mar 22, 2009 14:53:47 EDT The Army has dropped Lariam - the drug linked to side effects including suicidal tendencies, anxiety, aggression and paranoia - as its preferred protection against malaria because doctors had inadvertently prescribed it to people who should not take it. Lariam, the brand name for mefloquine, should not...
18th March 2009
Merck gives malaria drug to non-profit group
LONDON (Reuters) - Merck & Co is donating an experimental anti-malarial medicine to a not-for-profit research organization in the latest example of drugmakers stepping up efforts to address health issues in poor countries. Companies have come under increasing pressure in recent years to do such deals in order to improve access to modern drugs in the developing world at affordable prices. Last...
14th March 2009
For malaria, we just can't afford to use cheap drugs
By Tim Harford, Financial Times There are two ways to take anti-malarial drugs: the expensive way, which helps the world; and the cheap way, which helps only the patient. Most Africans cannot afford the expensive way and, as a result, the world's most effective anti-malarial drug may lose its potency. That drug is artemisinin, available either by itself as a "monotherapy", or with other drugs as...
12th March 2009
PRI's The World focuses on resistant malaria on Thai-Cambodian border
The Thai-Cambodian border has long been a breeding ground for drug-resistant malaria. The World's Mary Kay Magistad reports on a new campaign to defeat the disease in that region and to keep it from spreading globally. Listen to the full story from PRI's website: http://www.theworld.org/node/25063 PRI's The World has an entire series devoted to malaria: Part 1: How the United States defeated...
25th February 2009
WHO announces $22.5M Containment grant
from WHO website: 25 FEBRUARY 2009 | GENEVA -- WHO today said that the emergence of parasites resistant to artemisinin at the Thai-Cambodia border could seriously undermine the success of the global malaria control efforts. Surveillance systems and research studies supported by WHO to monitor antimalarial drug efficacy in countries are providing new evidence that parasites resistant to...
20th February 2009
CANTAM first African Network of Excellence for clinical trials
from EDCTP website: The countries of Central Africa have joined forces to enable the region to build research capacity and conduct clinical trials under best practices. CANTAM (Central Africa Network on Tuberculosis, HIV/AIDS and Malaria for the conduct of clinical trials) is the first EDCTP-funded regional Network of Excellence to prepare the region to conduct high-quality clinical trials. It...
20th February 2009
Malaria drugs shortage looms
from Samuel Kumba and John Ngirachu, Daily Nation: The government has issued a warning about a possible shortage of malaria and TB drugs later in the year, after what officials described as a misunderstanding with the Global Fund. Medical Services minister Anyang' Nyong'o said available stocks of the drugs would only last for about seven months. "I can only confirm that in six or seven months...
20th February 2009
No more bitter pill?
from MMV website: Dakar, 20 February 2009 - Novartis and Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV) announced today the African launch of Coartem® Dispersible. Coartem® Dispersible is the result of a unique public-private collaboration between Novartis and the nonprofit Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV). The announcement was made today in Dakar at the culmination of the week-long pan-African...
20th February 2009
Nurses concerned by lack of compliance with antimalarials
From Nursing in Practice: A survey of travel health nurses conducted by GlaxoSmithKline at a recent malaria study day organised by the Royal College of Nursing and the British Travel Health Association reveals that 25 of the 38 nurses questioned rarely, if ever, learn whether patients complete their course of antimalarial treatment.In response to the survey, Jane Chiodini, a travel health...
20th February 2009
Uganda to make anti-malaria drugs
From Irene Nabusoba and John Odyek, The New Vision: The Ministry of Health has worked out emergency supplies of the frontline anti-malarial drug, Coartem, to end a shortage that hit Uganda after Global Fund money was withheld. The commissioner for health services planning, Dr. Francis Runumi, said the ministry had contracted Quality Chemicals, a Kampala-based pharmaceutical company, to produce...
19th February 2009
'No threat of malaria in Durban'
from Mary Papayya, Sowetan: The department of health in KwaZulu-Natal yesterday ruled out any chance of a break-out of malaria in Durban. The statement came after seven malaria cases from the Mt Edgecombe area were listed at a private hospital in the city last week. The department launched a full investigation following reports of the cases and has subsequently found that six of the malaria...
18th February 2009
Tanzanian minister says antimalarials are too expensive
from IRIN Africa: DAR ES SALAAM, 18 February 2009 (IRIN) - The high cost of anti-malarial drugs - up to US$10 per course - has made treatment prohibitive for most poor people in Tanzania, the health minister said. "Malaria is a disease of the poorest of the poor and such a cost is prohibitively high to the sick rural poor," David Mwakyusa said. "There is a need for concerted effort to bring down...
16th February 2009
Rise in Malaria Rates, Drug Resistance Tied to Climate
from Science Daily: Temperature is an important factor in the spread of malaria and other mosquito-borne diseases, but researchers who look at average monthly or annual temperatures are not seeing the whole picture. Global climate change will affect daily temperature variations, which can have a more pronounced effect on parasite development, according to a Penn State entomologist. "We need...
13th February 2009
New malaria network to research Pacific strain
from Radio Australia presenter: Sean Dorney, Australia NetworkSpeakers: Sir Richard Feachem, the Professor of Global Health at the University of California Hear the interview with Windows Media at http://www.radioaustralia.net.au One of the first tasks of the new Asia-Pacific Malaria Elimination Network will be to gain a better understanding of the malaria strain found in the Pacific. The...
10th February 2009
Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network meets in Brisbane
from Paul Chinook, Tropika.net: Brisbane, Australia is hosting the three-day inaugural meeting a new regional network established to scale-up efforts to fight malaria in the Asia Pacific region. Australia's Parliamentary Secretary for International Development Assistance, Bob McMullan said: "The inaugural meeting of the Asia Pacific Malaria Elimination Network in Brisbane will give countries an...
4th February 2009
Presumptive malaria treatment of children with fever vs. Laboratory-confirmed diagnosis
The full article, published 9 January, 2009, can be found at PLoS Medicine Paul Chinook at Tropika.net writes an editorial and summary of the PLoS article: In African children, malaria has been both the commonest cause of fever and the commonest cause of death. Unsurprisingly, therefore many clinicians believe that the correct cause of action when seeing a child with fever is to presume that...
27th January 2009
Spread of Malaria Strain Feared as Drug Loses Potency
By Thomas Fuller, The New York Times TASANH, Cambodia - The afflictions of this impoverished nation are on full display in its western corner: the girls for hire outside restaurants, the badly rutted dirt roads and the ubiquitous signs that warn "Danger Mines!" But what eludes the naked eye is a potentially graver problem, especially for the outside world. The parasite that causes the deadliest...
24th January 2009
UAE ready to share Malaria treatment experience with all countries
from Emirates News Agency WAM DUBAI, Jan. 24th, 2009: The UAE Ministry of Health is keen on sharing its preventive medicine experience with all other countries seeking help in combating Malaria, said the UAE Minister of Health Humaid Mohammed Al Qattami. He said the Ministry provided all resources to the World Health Organization's teams to experience first-hand the UAE's active efforts to...
21st January 2009
Hunt for new malaria vaccine
from Destination Sante: Developed by the GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) laboratory, this vaccine was evaluated in the field in Tanzania and Kenya. The first study involved 340 Tanzanian infants under the age of one, who were monitored for 6 months. In addition to the positive results already mentioned, it was also shown that the new candidate vaccine does not compromise the effectiveness of other...
21st January 2009
KENYA: Small farmers cash in on Artemisinin production
from IRI News NAIROBI, 21 January 2009 (IRIN) - East African farmers are key suppliers of the active ingredient in the most effective malaria drug available. Although the Artemisia annua plant (sweet wormwood) is not native to the region, East Africa “is now the third most important growing region in the world”, said Nigel Bremner, commercial manager of Botanical Extracts EPZ Limited...
20th January 2009
RBM sees potential for surge in malaria cases, deaths in Zimbabwe
from Afrique en ligne LUSAKA, Zambia-The Roll Back Malaria (RBM) Partnership has warned that the potential for malaria epidemics in Zimbabwe this year is very high because health teams were diverted to control the cholera outbreak, among other factors. RBM, a global public-private partnership for the fight against malaria, launched 10 years ago by World Health Organisation (WHO), United Nations...
18th January 2009
Insecticide or suffering?
from The Washington Times: Next week, the European Parliament will debate stringent regulation of a number of effective pesticides. It is apparently too much to expect a sense of shame from European public health officials and their activist "environmental" collaborators when the subject of chemical pesticides is raised. What about some sense of history? Or compassion? Not likely, as the European...
16th January 2009
'Window Into The Brain' Reveals Deadly Secrets Of Malaria
from sciencedaily.com: Looking at the retina in the eyes of patients with cerebral malaria has provided scientists with a vital insight into why malaria infection in the brain is so deadly. In a study funded by the Wellcome Trust and Fight for Sight and published January 14 in the Journal of Infectious Diseases, researchers in Malawi have shown for the first time in patients that the build-up of...
16th January 2009
Malaria Parasite Invasion of the Mosquito Salivary Gland Requires Interaction between the Plasmodium TRAP and the Anopheles Saglin Proteins
from PLoS Pathogens: Transmission of Plasmodium, the causative agent of malaria, requires the completion of a complex life cycle in the mosquito, which includes invasion of the salivary glands. This invasion depends on the recognition of mosquito salivary gland surface components by the parasite. This work demonstrates that interaction between the salivary-gland-specific surface protein saglin...
13th January 2009
CAMBODIA: Malaria gaining tolerance to some treatments
from IRIN News: PAILIN, 13 January 2009 (IRIN) - Malaria along the Thai-Cambodian border is becoming increasingly tolerant to Artemisinin medicines, threatening the global effort to control malaria, new evidence shows. Artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), whereby patients take both a fast-acting (Artemisinin derivatives) and slower-acting drug to kill the parasite, could lose part of its...
4th January 2009
Alert over low grade malaria drugs
by Gatonye Gathura, Daily Nation Kenya is now a free-for-all market for malaria drugs with more than 113 brands from 20 countries being sold. Of these, more than half are not registered, a similar number are of poor quality and most are not recommended in the country, according to the Ministry of Health. The ministry blames local drug manufacturers and those who import the medicines from India as...
