1,800 dead as malaria 'epidemic' rages in Burundi, U.N. says
Malaria has killed more than 1,800 people in Burundi this year, the U.N.'s humanitarian agency says, a death toll rivaling a deadly Ebola outbreak in neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. In its latest situation report, the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs ...
Malawi will on Tuesday spearhead large scale pilot tests for the world's most advanced experimental malaria vaccine in a bid to prevent the disease that kills hundreds of thousands across Africa every year. After more than three decades in development and almost $1 billion in ...
Study finds potential new weapon in age-old fight against malaria
For years, insecticide-soaked mosquito nets have helped dramatically lower malaria infections, but growing resistance to the insecticides has driven a search for alternatives. Now a new study may have uncovered one option. The weapon is an anti-malarial drug already used by humans to prevent them ...
Billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said Sunday that excellent basic health care that would prevent easily treatable but deadly conditions was achievable even in Africa's poorest nations. "The good news about health is that by spending modest amounts on the prioritized areas, you can get phenomenal ...
In the hunt for more effective weapons against malaria, international researchers are exploring a little-studied pathway: killing parasites in the liver, before the illness emerges. "It's very difficult to work on the liver stage," said Elizabeth Winzeler, professor of pharmacology and drug discovery at the ...
Health workers on Wednesday launched a door-to-door, four-day blitz to control malaria in Democratic Republic of Congo with the aim of cutting suspected Ebola cases in half. "It will make things a lot easier if malaria is taken out of the equation," Stefan Hoyer of ...
Languishing with fever and frustrated by delays in diagnosing his illness, Brian Gitta came up with a bright idea: a malaria test that would not need blood samples or specialized laboratory technicians. That inspiration has won the 25-year-old Ugandan computer scientist a prestigious engineering prize ...
Core genes of malaria parasite found, offering new medical targets
Scientists have identified the core genes that are essential for the deadliest malaria parasite to survive, revealing new targets for drugs or vaccines to fight the potentially deadly disease they cause in people. Using new genomic techniques to analyze the parasite's genes, researchers from Britain's ...
Trial of new bug spray on malaria nets in Tanzania sets hopes flying
Using a new bug spray on bed nets that blocks mosquitoes resistant to current insecticides almost halved malaria infections among children in Tanzania in a study that has boosted hopes of protecting more people from the killer disease. A trial by the London School of ...
Insecticide resistance spreads in Africa, threatening progress in malaria fight
The largest genetic study of mosquitoes has found their ability to resist insecticides is evolving rapidly and spreading across Africa, putting millions of people at higher risk of contracting malaria. British scientists who led the work said mosquitoes' growing resistance to control tools such as ...
Malaria drug for pregnant women also combats sexually transmitted infections
A drug given to pregnant women to combat malaria also offers protection against sexually transmitted infections (STIs), and boosting doses of the "double protection" treatment cuts the risk of infant deaths, researchers said on Thursday. Giving pregnant women regular doses of antimalarial drugs greatly reduces ...
Multidrug-resistant malaria superbugs have taken hold in parts of Thailand, Laos and Cambodia, threatening to undermine progress against the disease, scientists said. The superbugs — malaria parasites that can beat off the best current treatments, artemisinin and piperaquine — have spread throughout Cambodia, with even ...
