Acute malarial anemia remains a major public health problem. Hepcidin, the major hormone controlling the availability of iron, is raised during acute and asymptomatic parasitemia. Understanding the role and mechanism of raised hepcidin and so reduced iron availability during infection is critical to establish evidence-based guidelines for management of malaria anemia. Our recent clinical evidence … [Read more...]
African Experts Discuss Need for Better Regulation of Medicine
In most African countries, pharmaceutical drugs are poorly regulated or not regulated at all, posing huge risks for those who depend on them to stay healthy. But for the first time, the topic has gotten the attention of African officials, who holding a scientific conference on the topic in South Africa. Access to safe and effective medicine can be touch and go in Africa, where the market … [Read more...]
Show Me the Money! The Sad State of Compassion
Jeffrey Sachs, Director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University and author of To Move the World: JFK's Quest for Peace, recently wrote a provocative piece in the Huffington Post entitled "World to Poor: Drop Dead." "The spin-masters are already at work putting all of the sugar coating on it, but the reality is shocking and revealing. The world as a whole didn't come up with a measly $5 … [Read more...]
WHO Sets Roadmap Goal for Vaccines to Reduce Malaria by 75%
Malaria infects hundreds of millions of people every year and causes well over a half million deaths. The World Health Organization and its partners Thursday announced a new goal to license vaccines by 2030 that would sharply reduce malaria cases and eventually eliminate the disease. The 2013 Malaria Vaccine Technology Roadmap was unveiled in Washington. It expands the scope of vaccine … [Read more...]
New Tech Savvy Peace Corps Embraces Global Teamwork to Fight Malaria
Christopher Hedrick, Country director of the Peace Corps Senegal writes about the "New Peace Corps" — one that embraces new malaria tools and technological advances to fight malaria on a larger scale than it ever has in the past, with the dedicated efforts of a new generation of young, tech savvy volunteers with lofty goals and accustomed to working with disparate teams. … [Read more...]
Tracking Black Market Malaria Drugs
"The theft and black market resale of anti-malaria medications is a serious problem in African countries like Angola and Tanzania, hindering the global aid effort to combat the disease. U.S. investigators are leading a probe into the widespread theft and black-market resale of malaria drugs donated to Africa by the U.S. government. Organized theft is plaguing the multibillion-dollar aid effort, … [Read more...]
Malaria Death Toll Rises in North Cameroon
YAOUNDE — The death toll from malaria in north Cameroon has risen to 2,500. The minister of health says treated mosquito bed nets that are supposed to be distributed free are instead sold in hospitals or exported to neighboring countries. Meanwhile, hospitals say they no longer have space for patients as the epidemic keeps growing. Tanimou Maimouna cries in front of the Bon Secours clinic in … [Read more...]
Liberia Fights Fake Drugs
DAKAR — Liberia is cracking down on the sellers of fake or expired pharmaceutical drugs, but has met some resistance from people, especially in rural communities, who say these black market medicines are all they can get or afford. The traffic and sale of old and counterfeit medicine—a multimillion dollar industry—is widespread in West Africa. It is not hard to find one of … [Read more...]
Bill Gates: What’s More Important – Connectivity or Curing Disease?
The internet is not going to save the world, says the Microsoft co-founder, whatever Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley’s tech billionaires believe. But eradicating disease just might. Bill Gates describes himself as a technocrat. But he does not believe that technology will save the world. Or, to be more precise, he does not believe it can solve a tangle of entrenched and interrelated problems … [Read more...]
CDC Warns of Imported Malaria – U.S. Cases Reach 40 Year High
Increase underscores importance of taking recommended medicines to prevent malaria when traveling In 2011, 1,925 malaria cases were reported in the United States, according to data published in a supplement of the Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report (MMWR) released today by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). This number is the highest since 1971, more than 40 years ago, and … [Read more...]