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Are We Doing Enough for Malaria Research?

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Given the current reliance on international donor support as described by the MalaFA report, within the context of malaria research, is funding going to the countries that need it the most?
To what extent are operational or implementation research projects receiving funding support, as compared to other types of research (such as basic research)?

10 Non-traditional Ways People Get Rid of Mosquito Bites

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Mosquito bites itch, and they almost always seem to come at the worst possible time. Given it’s a problem pretty much everyone around the world encounters, lots of people are trying to find creative ways to get rid of them. Below are 10 interesting methods used to combat mosquitoes and their bites.

Malaria Overview

NEWS

Getting to Know Plasmodium knowlesi: The New Parasite on the Block

By Matt Boyce, Gretchen Mohr, and Eva Rest Plasmodium knowlesi, one species of the multiple protozoan parasites that cause malaria, has joined the lineup of human malaria parasites. P. knowlesi was originally known to cause malaria in long-tailed and pig-tailed macaques typically found in Southeast Asia (Figure 1). Only within the last two decades have […]

New Research May Lead to Rapid Screening Test for Subclinical Infections

While the global health community has made great strides toward eradicating malaria through prevention and treatment strategies, rapid and inexpensive methods to diagnose submicroscopic malaria in individuals who have no clinical symptoms and undetectable levels of disease-causing parasites in their blood remain an unmet need. New research could pave the way for a rapid screening test capable of diagnosing submicroscopic infections

WHO: Urgent Call for End to Malaria Resurgence

The World Health Organization is joining a worldwide call to stop a resurgence of malaria that threatens much of the progress made over the past decade. To mark World Malaria Day, WHO is pushing for urgent action – and money – to get the global fight against this ancient scourge back on track.

Four Year Old Dies of Malaria in Italy

A four-year old girl has died of a severe form of malaria contracted in Italy, where the disease is supposed to have been eradicated years ago nearly half a century ago. Italy’s health ministry on Tuesday said it was sending experts to investigate the death Sofia Zago, who died in hospital in the northern city of Brescia overnight between Sunday and Monday.

U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative

Despite substantial financial contributions by the United States President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) since 2006, no studies have carefully assessed how this program may have affected important population-level health outcomes. We utilized multiple publicly available data sources to evaluate the association between introduction of PMI and child mortality rates in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Methods and findings […]

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Research

Tools and Strategies for Malaria Control and Elimination: What Do We Need to Achieve a Grand Convergence in Malaria?

Progress made in malaria control during the past decade has prompted increasing global dialogue on malaria elimination and eradication. The product development pipeline for malaria has never been stronger, with promising new tools to detect, treat, and prevent malaria, including innovative diagnostics, medicines, vaccines, vector control products, and improved mechanisms for surveillance and response.

Does High-Dose Antimicrobial Chemotherapy Prevent the Evolution of Resistance?

High-dose chemotherapy has long been advocated as a means of controlling drug resistance in infectious diseases but recent empirical studies have begun to challenge this view. Researchers have developed a general framework for modeling and understanding resistance emergence based on principles from evolutionary biology.

Targeting the Cell Stress Response of Plasmodium Falciparum to Overcome Artemisinin Resistance

Successful control of falciparum malaria depends greatly on treatment with artemisinin combination therapies. Thus, reports that resistance to artemisinins (ARTs) has emerged, and that the prevalence of this resistance is increasing, are alarming. The researchers’ model predicts that extending current three-day ART treatment courses to four days, or splitting the doses, will efficiently clear resistant parasite infections.

Challenges in Modelling Infectious DIsease Dynamics

Malaria, HIV, and tuberculosis (TB) collectively account for several million deaths each year, with all three ranking among the top ten killers in low-income countries. Despite being caused by very different organisms, malaria, HIV, and TB present a suite of challenges for mathematical modellers that are particularly pronounced in these infections, but represent general problems in infectious disease modelling, and highlight many of the challenges described throughout this issue. Here, we describe some of the unifying challenges that arise in modelling malaria, HIV, and TB, including variation in dynamics within the host, diversity in the pathogen, and heterogeneity in human contact networks and behaviour. Through the lens of these three pathogens, we provide specific examples of the other challenges in this issue and discuss their implications for informing public health efforts.

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