Global Malaria News

Researchers have identified a possible new therapeutic strategy using two types of drug inhibitors at once to treat one of the world's deadliest cancers.

An interdisciplinary team of scientists has identified a new mobile DNA element in the Wolbachia parasite, which may contribute to improved control strategies for mosquito vectors of diseases such as Dengue and West Nile virus.

An experimental drug, called DSM265, cured seven volunteers of a Plasmodium falciparum infection, a malaria parasite that is a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. The goal of this research is to find a cure for malaria with a single dose, and ultimately, eradicate the parasite.

By targeting a protein found in the saliva of mosquitoes that transmit Zika virus, investigators reduced Zika infection in mice. The finding demonstrates how researchers might develop a vaccine against Zika and similar mosquito-borne viruses, the study authors said.

Resistance to antimalarial drugs is thought to result mainly from changes in the parasite's genome. However, P. falciparum can also develop resistance to some antimalarial compounds by epigenetic changes, according to a new study. This is of concern because resistance acquired at the epigenetic level can arise quickly, even during the course of a single infection.

The registration has just finished in Guinea of 2.3 million households that will receive nets in the nationwide universal coverage campaign that will take place in April and May 2019. Registration establishes the net need for each household individually.

The four regions that will receive 3.86 million AMF-funded nets are Boké, Faranah, N'zérékoré and Kankan. In these regions 990,000 households were registered in 12 days by 6,900 community health volunteers with management and supervision at sub-district, district and regional level by Guinea's National Malaria Control Programme (NMCP).

A number of data-driven mechanisms are in place to maximize, and provide evidence for, the accuracy of the registration.

1. "105% Registration"
   Community health workers, coordinated by the NMCP, carry out "105% registration" whereby 100% of the households are visited to establish net need for each individual household, and then a random sample of 5% of the households are re-visited by a separate group of data collectors with no knowledge of the 100% data collected. Importantly, those carrying out the 100% registration are aware re-visits will take place. This acts as a mechanism to encourage accurate registration.
    
2. Independent monitoring
   AMF funds an independent organisation to monitor the way the registration is managed and carried out by the NMCP. The 100% and 5% registrations are monitored closely in 40 randomly selected villages. This monitoring provides quantitative and qualitative insight into the registration process and is carried out in the spirit of wishing to know how well things are going, what challenges are faced by the teams carrying out the work and what lessons can be learned for this and future campaigns.
    
3. Independent Village Re-registration (IVR)
   An independent organisation, funded by AMF, carries out the whole village re-registration of 40 villages, selected at random, with the very specific objective of recording the details of all households in each of the villages. The data collected can be compared with the 100% registration data. This provides AMF with an independent source of information to help assess the accuracy of the NMCP-led registration.
    
4. Electronification of household records
   Household registration information collected on paper are sent to a data entry centre located in the capital, Conakry, where they are entered into AMF's Data Entry System (DES). AMF funds this work, carried out by 400 data entry clerks. This transparent process allows visibility for all partners of household records, and analysis of them. This would not be possible if paper-based records remained at individual health facilities and only summary numbers were sent to the NMCP.

3.5 million nets funded by AMF have now arrived in Guinea. Once the registration data has been analysed, the final number of nets required to ensure complete protection of the population in the four regions will be ordered, produced and shipped to Guinea for distribution in May. This 'split-shipment' approach, with the second quantity shipped guided by actual registration data, allows us to be accurate and not wasteful with the number of nets we fund and distribute whilst ensuring all those that need to be protected receive nets.

Malaria, which claims hundreds of thousands of lives each year -- mainly children and especially in Africa -, is one of the leading causes of death by an infectious agent, the Plasmodium falciparum parasite. In research on malaria, the genetic mutation that causes sickle cell anemia (also known as drepanocytosis), a chronic disease that is often fatal in children under five, caught the attention of the scientific community very early on because it also provides protection against malaria.

Mosquitoes that landed on surfaces coated with the anti-malarial compound atovaquone were completely blocked from developing Plasmodium falciparum, the parasite that causes malaria, according to new research.

The anopheline mosquitoes that carry malaria were present 100 million years ago, new research shows, potentially shedding fresh light on the history of a disease that continues to kill more than 400,000 people annually.

Scientists have developed a novel way with genome sequences to study and better understand transmission, treat and ultimately eradicate Plasmodium vivax, the most widespread form of malaria.

Researchers report that they have identified drugs that can reduce mosquito hunger for blood. Because movement of female mosquitoes from human to human -- male mosquitoes do not consume blood -- is the means by which mosquito-borne infections are passed along, researchers have theorized that reducing the frequency with which female mosquitoes feed is one way to lessen the spread of disease.

An international research has found that malaria parasite genomes are shaped by parasite-specific gene families, and that this genome organization strongly correlates with the parasite's virulence. The findings highlight the importance of spatial genome organization in gene regulation and the control of virulence in malaria parasites.

Disrupting two genes involved in the preservation of RNA molecules inhibits the ability of the male form of the malaria parasite to mature and be transmitted from human blood into mosquitoes, interrupting a key stage in the parasite's life-cycle and cutting off an important step in the spread of the disease.

In a context of overuse of insecticides, which leads to the selection of resistant mosquitoes, it is already known that this resistance to insecticides affects interactions between mosquitoes and the pathogens they transmit. Researchers demonstrate that mechanisms of insecticide resistance, observed in Culex quinquefasciatus vector, impact the transmission of West Nile virus.

Wherever possible, researchers should not just focus on mosquito behavior when working to eliminate malaria, but must also consider how humans behave at night when the risk of being bitten by an infected mosquito is highest.

A type of mosquito that transmits malaria has been detected in Ethiopia for the first time, and the discovery has implications for putting more people at risk for malaria in new regions.

Question: Can malaria be transmitted through oral sex? Answer: No. Malaria cannot be sexually transmitted, including oral sex. Malaria is a vector-borne parasite and is transmitted to humans via the bite of an infected mosquito. As the malaria parasite resides in blood, it can also be transmitted via blood transfusion or via donated organs (though most countries […]

Question: If one doesn’t complete the malaria drug being prescribed, and takes multivitamin due to no appetite towards eating and later stop, does this cause the person spitting uncontrollable. Answer: I am not aware of any link between failure to complete a course of malaria medication and excess saliva, nor any link with taking multivitamins. The main […]

 I am working with rural African communities where we are struggling with contamination of farm products with residues from indoor residual spraying (ban on exports) - and are concerned about contamination of humans as well. Stepped up treatment of all persons diagnosed with malaria with AL. How do the mosquitoes get infected by the parasite so that they can infect humans?