Global Malaria News

A new tool uses a smartphone camera, a small 3D-printed box and a simple chemical test to show whether a dead mosquito belongs to the Aedes aegypti species, which carries Zika and other devastating viruses that afflict an estimated 100 million people worldwide each year.

Heartbeat irregularities connected to brain activity abnormalities may lead to the ability to predict eventual epileptic seizures in subjects who suffered physical or infectious brain insults, according to Penn State researchers who studied mouse models of cerebral malaria, which often causes epilepsy in those who survive.

New drug-resistant strains of the parasite that causes malaria tend to evolve in regions with lower malaria risk; in areas with high transmission rates, they get outcompeted by the more common, drug-sensitive strains inside the human host. In high-transmission settings, it takes a long time for drug-resistant strains to take hold, but once they do, they can spread rapidly, according to a new study.

Nearly 700 million people suffer from mosquito-borne diseases -- such as malaria, West Nile, Zika and dengue fever -- each year, resulting in more than 1 million deaths. Today, researchers report a new class of mosquito repellents based on naturally occurring compounds that are effective in repelling the bugs, including those that are resistant to pyrethroid insecticides and repellents.