topnaman | Malaria blog

We’ve talked about the looming threat of artemisinin-resistant malaria and its spread before (here and here). Well the Gates Foundation funded containment project for the P. falciparum strains along the Thai-Cambodia border has a blog. And it looks terrific – from vivid photos, an interview with Dr Wichai Satimai (director of the Thai Bureau of [...]

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 [...]

Check out these blasts from the past. Larry Fillion  has assembled an incredible collection of stamps on all things malaria. Nearly 150 ‘countries’ are represented – though some are colonies, others no longer exist, and many have changed names… Most seem to date from 1950s-70s when they were issued in support of the global malaria [...]

The combined gametocidal effect of primaquine plus artemisinin-combination therapy (ACT) to reduce post-treatment transmission of P. falciparum malaria is a key operational research question for malaria treatment (previously discussed here). And the evidence of adding primaquine, particularly in areas of low to medium transmission, keeps piling up. Smithius et al. report results from a massive [...]

My critique of strategy and equity in plans discussed so far: Recent dialogue around malaria elimination is laden with implicit assumptions. While the elimination of malaria may be both feasible and equitable in a few areas, globally: 1) the control tools which successfully reduce malaria burden may not be sufficient to interrupt transmission over long [...]

19, and counting, excellent malaria posts (one previously discussed here). Dr Knols asks tough questions and we’ve both touched on hot topics from King Tut, military antimalarials, Fred Soper, DDT, counterfeit medicines, Chinese efforts in the Comoros, to science press releases.

The paradox of malaria and many tropical diseases is that those most at-risk are also some of the least likely to access, or be able to access, health facilities. Active case detection, the screening of fever cases in the community itself, helps enable case management in such remote or inaccessible areas. But it’s also time and [...]