In November 2012, the Board of the Global Fund meets to determine the future of the Affordable Medicines Facility – malaria. Should it be cut, to make better use of limited funds? Or does it still have a role to play in the fight against malaria? In late 2009, the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (hereafter, the Global Fund) launched an initiative called the Affordable … [Read more...]
Challenges in Malaria Research: 2012 Highlights
Guest bloggers Rosalind Howes and Katherine Battle report from this month’s Challenges in Malaria Research Conference in Basel, Switzerland. The fight against malaria has enjoyed unprecedented financial and research investment over the past decade, with ensuing successes including important drops in malaria mortality and morbidity, stories of national elimination and targets set for regional … [Read more...]
As American as…Plasmodium vivax?
While its evolutionary history is disputed, there’s no doubt malaria was a key factor in the history of the Americas I am in the midst of a fascinating book about the way the world changed after Columbus “discovered” America in 14921. Called, appropriately, 1493: Uncovering the World Columbus Created, it is author Charles C. Mann’s follow-up to an earlier, equally engaging book on pre-Colombian … [Read more...]
Looking Ahead to 2012 and Beyond – What is the Future of the Global Fund?
At the beginning of December I went to the 60th annual meeting of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene. Attended by over 3500 scientists, practitioners, clinicians and students from around the world, the meeting is one of the pre-eminent global events for discussing and disseminating information related to all tropical diseases and health issues. Malaria, as you might expect, has … [Read more...]
Where There is No Medicine, Let Alone a Doctor
Remote or poorly accessible communities create special challenges for delivery of health care. There were goats in my classroom this morning. Quite adorable kids, but unfortunately not the right species for my health survey. The school is located in Bunda District, sandwiched between Lake Victoria and the long western arm of Serengeti National Park, which stops only a few kilometers from the … [Read more...]
The “E” word and the “V” word: Two Holy Grails of Malaria Control
The Roll Back Malaria Partnership talks confidently of elimination—many others question if this is possible without new interventions. The recent publication of the first Phase 3 clinical trial for a malaria vaccine shows promise, but is it actually good enough? REVIEW OF: Roll Back Malaria Partnership, “Eliminating Malaria: Learning from the Past, Looking Ahead”, Progress & … [Read more...]
Breaking the Promise of Bednets? Let’s Not Jump to Conclusions…
Review of Trape et al., (2011), Malaria morbidity and pyrethroid resistance after the introduction of insecticide-treated bednets and artemisinin-based combination therapies: a longitudinal study, The Lancet Infectious Diseases, published online August 18th. Jean-François Trape and colleagues have been causing quite a media stir with the article they recently published in The Lancet Infectious … [Read more...]
Can of Worms: Travel Parasites to Know About
Malaria isn’t the only parasite you need to think about when you travel In my last post, I shared some of the misguided myths about malaria that I had heard while hanging out with the tourists on Zanzibar. Then, in the in-flight magazine on the internal flight between Dar and Mwanza (my flight was over an hour late…hence how the airline, Precision Air, earned its local nickname: “Imprecision … [Read more...]
Myths About Malaria
I infiltrated the tourist circles of Zanzibar to find out what travellers really know about the most deadly parasite on the planet Travellers these days are pretty savvy; the ease of international travel and the ubiquity of the internet have encouraged more people to explore the world than ever before, and to be well-informed about the locations they are planning to visit. A key milestone in … [Read more...]
Treating Malaria by Health Extension Workers: A Case Study from Ethiopia
For many years the World Health Organization (WHO) and the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) have been promoting an Integrated Management of Childhood Illness (IMCI) training package to ensure that nurses and doctors are capable of treating sick children at health facilities. Over the years, with the realization that many children did not have access to health facilities and therefore … [Read more...]