Archive for Month: July 2020
WHO says trials show malaria and HIV drugs don’t cut Covid-19 hospital deaths
The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Saturday that it was discontinuing its trials of the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and combination HIV drug lopinavir/ritonavir for patients in hospital with Covid-19 after they failed to reduce mortality. The setback came as WHO also reported more than 200,000 new cases globally of […]
Swapping production of malaria tests for covid-19 tests requires an urgent response
Since April 2020, several diagnostic companies have suggested that production dedicated to the most widely used malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) will be reallocated to covid-19 RDTs. In resource limited countries, RDTs are the main and often the only diagnostic tool for malaria. Together with the malaria community, we are […]
Research uncovers malaria’s secret to surviving in the blood
New research from the Francis Crick Institute has found how the malaria parasite protects itself from toxic compounds in red blood cells. Malaria causes around 400,000 deaths globally each year. It is caused by Plasmodium parasites which are transmitted by mosquitoes and grow in a person’s blood stream. In their […]
Ecologists detect warning signals of malaria outbreak
Researchers at the University of Georgia have demonstrated that disease surveillance data can be used to predict certain infectious disease outbreaks. The team detected early warning signals of a 1993 resurgence of malaria in Kenya in case reports from the roughly 10 years before the outbreak began. Their findings appear […]
Malaria deaths could double this year due to shortages of life-saving drugs and equipment
Decades of progress across sub-Saharan Africa could be undone in a matter of months if more is not done to ensure the supply and availability of life-saving malaria treatments, campaigners have warned. New modelling by the World Health Organization (WHO) found that the number of deaths due to malaria in […]
Rwanda: Flattening the malaria and COVID-19 curves
Long before COVID-19 sickened communities, took lives, and shut down economies, the U.S. government launched a program that has helped 27 African and Asian countries prepare for the pandemic. The U.S. President’s Malaria Initiative (PMI) was launched 15 years ago to reduce deaths from malaria, a cruel and ancient killer […]
Ghana’s efforts to eliminate malaria at risk as economy improves
Ghana’s efforts to eliminate malaria could be in jeopardy as its improved economy results in reduced external funding for fighting malaria, a study suggests. With Ghana experiencing a five-fold increase in gross domestic product per capita from US$ 309 to US$1,517 between 2002 and 2016, and thus becoming a lower […]