topnaman | Malaria blog

The title of this post is a bit sensational for my tastes but honest in regards to the charges levied by Somandjinga et al in the Bulletin of the WHO. The history of malaria control is replete with stories of gaffes small and large. However, the “policy and practice” article contains frank and detailed criticism, [...]

Two events prompted this post. First, several people have asked me if the malaria vaccine they heard about in the news will eliminate malaria. Second, the GSK CEO Andrew Witty discussed pricing strategies (5% profit above the yet unknown production costs) for this vaccine, called RTS,S, at a recent talk. Wait – pricing? We don’t [...]

As a follow-up to the previous post on the Calcutta School of Tropical Medicine is a remarkable piece of history on its origins written by Helen Power. The subtitle “institutionalizing medical research in the periphery” summarizes the article and the insights one can expect from reviewing such a process. How are institutions forged? Who decides [...]

Need to stay up to date on malaria research? MalariaWorld is a site which consolidates and summarizes recent papers. They also have a blog and a useful list of malaria related job openings and graduate research positions.

Chloroquine was discovered in Germany in 1934 (as Resochin) but was originally considered too toxic for human use. After American trials of the drug in World War 2 chloroquine became a mainstay of malaria treatment. In recent decades with the advent of worldwide drug resistance its use has declined. With perhaps the exception of Mesoamerica, [...]

The mosquito vector, and by extension local ecology, drives malaria transmission. So understanding vector biology is important to malaria control. Classical studies of mosquito flight range, feeding preferences, and resting habits were crucial in the development and application of control strategies. Modern vector biology research, dominated by molecular studies, has produced new tools for monitoring [...]

The Multilateral Initiative on Malaria conference is the largest scientific gathering for malaria with more than 2,000 attendees. The conference has a blog for the press but Tropika is the site to watch with initiatives like researcher interviews and day by day coverage. Actually, this is the first time I have seen scientific event reporting that [...]

I get a lot of emails about malaria and other global health events. Here’s a recent one that may be of some interest to those living near Washington, DC: Malaria in the America Forum 2009: “Counting Malaria Out” towards the 2010 targets and the UN Millennium Development Goals. Friday, November 6, 2009 1:00pm – 4:30pm [...]

I’ve covered the Gates grand challenge exploration grants before, but some of the winners from the most recent round may take the “this just sounds crazy” cake – chewing gum for a saliva based diagnostic, and chocolate compounds as potential treatments!

The African Leaders Malaria Alliance announced during the United Nations general assembly claims it is “the first Head of State-level assembly expressly dedicated to ending deaths from the disease.” Is it just me or does this simply happen every ten years or so? If you also feel a sense of déjà vu it probably stems [...]