Global Malaria News

Feeding mosquitoes sugar makes them less attracted to humans, a response that is regulated by the protein vitellogenin, according to a new study.

A study which analyzed 15 years of mosquito surveillance data shows Iowa's western counties experience a higher abundance of the species thought to most commonly carry West Nile virus. Culex tarsalis, the mosquito species most often implicated in West Nile transmission, usually becomes most active in early September. The data support similar findings in Nebraska and South Dakota.

In people with chronic malaria, certain metabolic systems in the blood change to support a long-term host-parasite relationship, a finding that is key to eventually developing better detection, treatment and eradication of the disease, according to new research.

Researchers found significant delays in reporting human cases of West Nile virus, hampering real-time forecasting of the potentially deadly mosquito-borne disease.

Researchers have found that the dengue fever mosquito common to north and central Queensland poses the greatest danger of spreading the Zika virus in Australia. The researchers showed that not only was the dengue mosquito effective at transmitting Zika, the virus was also in the mosquitoes' reproductive organs. This finding suggests that Zika could persist in mosquito populations by females passing it to their offspring.

The loss of memory and cognitive function known to afflict survivors of septic shock is the result of a sugar that is released into the blood stream and enters the brain during the life-threatening condition.

A new analysis identifies African regions where ivermectin administration to livestock would have the greatest impact on malaria transmission. The results point to West Africa, below the Sahel, where malaria prevalence is very high.

Public health officials could soon be able to detect viruses in mosquitoes in the wild much more quickly and easily -- thanks to the insect equivalent of a urine test. A new study shows that two kinds of commonly used mosquito traps can be readily modified to collect mosquito excreta, or liquid waste droplets, to be tested for signs of viruses.

Mosquito-borne viruses, such as dengue, chikungunya, and Zika, already threaten over a billion people globally. A study predicts that climate change and rising global temperatures will lead to both increased and new exposures to humans of diseases carried by mosquito vectors Aedes aegypti and Ae. albopictus.

Female mosquitoes are known to rely on an array of sensory information to find people to bite, picking up on carbon dioxide, body odor, heat, moisture, and visual cues. Now researchers have discovered how mosquitoes pick up on acidic volatiles found in human sweat.

Researchers have developed an innovative method for analyzing the genome of the Wolbachia bacterium. This endosymbiotic bacterium infects more than 70 percent of insects and is capable of influencing insect transmission of pathogens such as dengue or Zika virus.

Few novel drugs have been developed to treat neglected diseases in recent decades, Brazilian researchers warn.

Protecting houses against mosquitoes with netting window screens can suppress malaria vector populations and dramatically reduce human parasite infection prevalence, according to new research.

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.