topnaman | Malaria blog

From the WSJ, Sonia Shah author of The Fever (here and here), reviews Lifeblood which chronicles the efforts of Ray Chambers to deliver lots and lots of treated bed-nets to Africa (previously discussed here). I’m mostly sharing this post because I’m a big fan of strong opening and closing sentences and these blew me away: Readers may [...]

Possibly, but probably not, and certainly too early to tell. Though some would have you believe it already. The World Health Organization press release makes two claims: 1) artemisinin-resistant malaria (previously discussed here and here) has almost disappeared from areas tested in a pilot project managed by WHO and 2) the overall incidence of malaria has reduced significantly [...]

I’m torn about press releases of scientific and programmatic work. On one hand issuing press releases rapidly disseminates findings, generates interest, and helps reach new audiences. Every institution, whether a university, NGO, or even a multilateral, has to maintain a supportive constituency and most will seek to ever expand this base. The pressure to leverage [...]

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.

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 really have to hand it to Paul Chinnock and his team at Tropika. Paul has turned the site into what I think is the best source of groundbreaking and offbeat  malaria news on the web (the site covers tropical diseases in general). I like his editorial input as well – he’s not afraid delve [...]

“Pool-filling could control malaria” an article at AllAfrica.com says. True, but so could swatting enough mosquitoes with your hands. The existence of an intervention does not mean its viable. Media communication of science research or public health news (previously discussed here) is consistently poor. To be fair, the environmental control of malaria can be an [...]

I enjoy listening to Public Radio International’s (PRI) program The World. In 2005, they produced a special on malaria, just before the disease began to receive mainstream prominence. The transcript of the four part series covers the history of malaria in the United States, eradication efforts in Equatorial Guinea, the dangers of counterfeit drugs, and [...]

I accidentally stumbled across the site Gooz News a year ago. Gooz News is the blog of longtime writer and reporter Merrill Goozner.  It was a fortuitous find of some rather interesting malaria thoughts (in both the actual posts as well as reader comments) that I have not seen elsewhere – particularly those which provided [...]