Six canine faces look out at the camera. You would be forgiven for assuming they are modelling pet products – but, no, these animals are the first team to be trained by Medical Detection Dogs (MDD) to detect COVID 19. The percentage of a dog’s brain that is devoted to analysing odours is 40 times […]
Scientists have made a major breakthrough in understanding how the parasite that causes malaria is able to multiply at such an alarming rate, which could be a vital clue in discovering how it has evolved, and how it can be stopped. For the first time, scientists have shown how certain molecules play an essential role […]
An Oxford-led study has identified the antibodies that may hold the key to creating the first effective vaccine against malaria infection in the blood. Researchers from the University of Oxford, along with partners from five institutions around the world, have identified the human antibodies that prevent the malaria parasite from entering blood cells, which may […]
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Climate itself is a basic determinant of the distribution of malaria in the world. As the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) explains, “Climate can influence all three components of the life cycle. It is thus a key determinant in the geographic distribution and the seasonality of malaria.”[1] Thus for anopheles mosquitoes there […]
How do malaria parasites invade human red blood cells where they multiply and cause infection? And can we use this knowledge to find a way to prevent this happening? To my mind, despite decades of research, we still know very little about this question or how to capitalise on our understanding of this mosquito-borne disease that […]
Four years ago working in Timor Leste, I experienced the devastating effects of dengue fever and malaria on families in a resource-poor environment. Waving mosquitos away from my face, I took blood tests and treated a cohort of sick children lying in their parents’ arms, lethargic and flat in the Emergency Department. I wondered what […]
Malaria cases in Europe have dropped from over 90,000 in 1995 to zero in 2015, due to high political commitment, improved surveillance systems, better mosquito control, strengthened communication and community involvement and greater collaboration across borders. In 2005, when there were around 5000 cases, 10 affected countries in the European region agreed to shift their […]
https://youtu.be/xmosxboD6-E Habiba Suleimon is a super-mum – an extraordinary individual with two wheels, a tablet and lots of data, who is independently raising a family and ridding her community of malaria. In this short film in USAID’s Extreme Possibilities series, follow Habiba as she zooms through Zanzibar, wielding technology and a world-class surveillance system that […]
Growing up in Kenya, I was one of the lucky ones. Despite falling prey to malaria about once a year – feeling sick as a dog with a profoundly painful headache and high temperature – I survived this horrible disease to see my fifth birthday. Sadly many, many other children were not so fortunate. It […]
Read More… from Now is the moment to step up the fight against malaria