mesa; malaria

“As a researcher working in a country that has decided to take on the challenge of eliminating malaria, the knowledge in the paper is enriching”. This is how Sandra Chishimba chose her ‘Top Pick’ article for World Malaria Day 2017.  MESA (Malaria Eradication Scientific Alliance) asked five experts what recent paper has helped them in their effort to outsmart malaria. The papers had to be open access, authored by another group, and published in the last 12 months.

“As a scientific worker we need innovation spirit to find new things” commented Tu Youyou in a telephone interview following the announcement of the 2015 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.[1] The Chinese scientist was awarded the Prize for her discovery of artemisinin in the 1970s, now a life-saving antimalarial drug. Leading a small team of researchers, she was the first to isolate the active ingredient from the Artemisia plant, using ether to extract it.

Three MESA-funded projects in Cambodia, Kenya and Tanzania looked at what can be done to reduce efficacy decay of malaria interventions in different settings, and the feasibility of clearing parasites from asymptomatic people. As the projects wrap-up, the research groups are sharing findings with National Malaria Control Programmes, Ministries of Health, as well as national research networks.