malaria

About 25% of pregnant women in malaria-endemic areas are infected with malaria and this accounts for about 15% of maternal deaths globally. Intermittent preventive treatment in pregnancy with sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (IPTp-SP) is one of the main strategies for prevention of malaria in pregnancy. A new recommendation was made by the World Health Organization (WHO) that at least three doses of IPTp-SP should be administered before delivery. This study sought to determine the factors influencing adherence to the new IPTp-SP policy in Keta District, Volta region, Ghana.

Although malaria remains a noteworthy disease in South Africa, the provinces are at differing stages of the malaria elimination continuum. KwaZulu-Natal has consistently reported the lowest number of cases over the past 5 years and it is expected that the goal of elimination will be achieved in this province over the next few years. The study reports on few key indicators that realistically represents the provinces progress over the past decade. Local and imported morbidity and mortality is seen as the key indicator as is malaria in children under the age of five and pregnant women. The only vector control intervention in the province is indoor residual spraying (IRS) and this gives an estimate of the population protected by this intervention.

These studies demonstrate the proof of concept of artemisinin therapeutic potential to improve survival in vitro of BMSCs exposed to ROS-induced apoptosis and suggest that artemisinin-mediated protection occurs via the activation of c-Raf-Erk1/2-p90rsk-CREB signaling pathway.