topnaman | Malaria blog

The Lancet published a series of eight articles on malaria elimination today – here are my brief summaries: Malaria elimination: worthy, challenging, and just possible The comment from the editors introduces the series and summarizes a few of the pieces. Horton and Das boldly highlight Gates “immense funding power and influence (witness WHO’s instant support)” [...]

Malaria isn’t just a disease of people. Over 200 species of Plasmodium have been described infecting different vertebrates including rodents, birds, reptiles, and monkeys. Last month Liu et al described the evolutionary origins of P. falciparum, the deadliest of human malaria parasites, which arose from a zoonotic (animal to human) transmission of a gorilla parasite. [...]

d For teaching me about health, human rights, and life by your example – Here’s to you Sujal

Sonia Shah continues her terrific malaria journalism with this piece on elimination. She successfully and succinctly drives home the equity argument (previously discussed here): When public health leaders want to control a disease, they devote the majority of their resources to the areas of greatest need. When their goal is eradication, they must spend their [...]