Fighting malaria with… mosquitoes?

Around a million people die of malaria each year, most of them in Africa.  Economic losses from the disease amount to an estimated one percent of the African economy each year.  According to a report from VOA news, researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute in Baltimore, Maryland are studying how mosquitoes could be [...]

30 million mosquito nets for Nigeria

The Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, in its largest-ever malaria initiative, will provide 30 million long-lasting treated mosquito nets to Nigeria.  This initiative will provide the African nation with half the nets needed to cover its entire population.
The Global Fund’s “unprecedented commitment to Nigeria, which bears one quarter of the global malaria [...]

Malaria parasite’s resistance to top drug grows

Artemisinin, derived from the sweet wormwood shrub, is the best drug available but misuse and over-prescription have led to the parasite becoming resistant to it. Counterfeit antimalarial drugs have also been a major cause of deaths.

Mapping out the fight against malaria

One of the biggest challenges in the fight against malaria is knowing where to hand out the nets since not all mosquitoes transmit the disease. Researchers at the University of Ottawa are using satellite mapping to better direct the distribution of aid resources.
To generate their maps of malaria-risk areas, the scientists use a process called [...]

Counterfeits and drug resistance: the global concern of malaria

Many health experts are concerned that the growing resistance to artemisinin drugs in western Cambodia could result in a repeat of the fate of chloroquine, which became largely ineffective. Counterfeit drugs can contain insufficient amounts of active ingredient, failing to cure the disease parasite and allowing it to mutate and resist the drug.  With half [...]

World Malaria Day – recognizing health progress and ongoing challenges

 World Malaria Day  (April 25) is a day of unified commemoration of the global effort to provide effective control of malaria around the world.  This year’s World Malaria Day marks a critical moment in time.  The international malaria community has merely two years to meet the 2010 targets of delivering effective and affordable protection and treatment [...]

New Partnership aims to deliver affordable, effective malaria drugs to the poor

A new international partnership, backed by the United Nations, hopes to put affordable malaria drugs within reach of millions of people, especially children, in sub-Saharan Africa and Asia.
The rationale behind The Affordable Medicines Facility for malaria, as the new initiative is known, will be to reduce the price of effective new therapies (artemisinin combination therapies [...]

Substandard malaria drugs in Africa

According to a recent study funded by Africa Fighting Malaria, many Africans are getting substandard or counterfeit malaria drugs.  This is a serious problem as the WHO estimates that malaria kills 1.3 million people each year – mostly children under age 5. 
A report from Reuters stated that:
Tests of 195 different packs of malaria drugs sold in [...]