topnaman | Malaria blog

Articles that is. The spread of resistance to artemisinin drugs, the main-stay of modern Plasmodium falciparum (and even P. vivax in some places) malaria therapy, would endanger control programs globally (previously discussed here, here, here, and here). Last week saw a series of high-profile publications which received an impressive amount of coverage in the general [...]

Truly beautiful studies – well designed, well thought, even examined cost and service delivery – were recently conducted for regular, presumptive antimalarial treatment (using SP and amodiaquine) of children in Mali and Burkina Faso in settings where treated bed-nets are already in use (PLoS Medicine – open access!). The intervention was effective at reducing clinical burden – [...]

Malaria mortality in India caused much controversy last fall. The study estimated almost 10 times the number malaria deaths in India during 2001-2003 compared to the estimates of the Government of India and WHO. The key strength of the work by Dhingra et al. was the use of a nationally representative sample of deaths during that [...]

A host of information to keep you busy: Looks like RDTs through drug shops won’t work. The same story with subsidized drugs? Mass drug administration with ivermectin to reduce mosquito survival (very novel research with a drug better known for river blindness control) World Malaria Report 2010 – at a glance looks great but do [...]

via Gizmodo, the ‘brutal’ invasion of a red blood cell by a malaria parasite (thanks to Saket)!

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. [...]

Malaria articles on Karen Grepin’s blog – while only a few malaria dedicated blogs exist, some development and health blogs have a nice collection of posts including this one. Assessment of malaria elimination in Zanzibar (old news) – even with a balanced outlook will it guide future actions – or are those predetermined by who’s [...]

The title is from a provocative article by Bart Knols (of MalariaWorld) on the modern malaria research establishment. I came across the piece through some related commentary at the terrific PloS Speaking of Medicine blog. His central thesis is a somewhat rhetorical question: “Is the bulk of today’s malaria research helping to control malaria?” As [...]

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 [...]

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!