http://medicalxpress.com/ en-us Medical Xpress internet news portal provides the latest news on Health and Medicine. A pioneering mobile device using cutting-edge nanotechnology to rapidly detect malaria infection and drug resistance will be ready for field testing this year, one year ahead of schedule. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-nanomal-smartphone-like-malaria-device-field.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 26 Apr 2013 09:02:28 EST news286185742 According to Sir Richard Feachem, Director of the Global Health Group at the University of California, San Francisco, USA, and senior author of the study, "The malaria control strategies implemented over the last decade have been highly successful in reducing malaria worldwide. However, these strategies must evolve to respond effectively to the changing patterns of infection in low transmission areas. More sophisticated and targeted approaches to identifying those people who are infected, and responding promptly and effectively, must be put in place. The good news is that these new approaches are being pioneered with great success in countries such as China, Sri Lanka, and Swaziland."* http://medicalxpress.com/news/2013-04-malaria-strategies-patterns-infection.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Sun, 14 Apr 2013 18:30:01 EST news285142960 New research, presented this morning at the 54th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology (ASH), has identified important associations between Plasmodium falciparum (Pf) malaria and endemic Burkitt Lymphoma (eBL) that may help researchers identify young children who are more susceptible to eBL. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-12-susceptibility-burkitt-lymphoma.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 11 Dec 2012 14:54:08 EST news274459994 In a breakthrough that could accelerate malaria vaccine and drug development, scientists announced today that, for the first time ever, human volunteers were infected with malaria via a simple injection of cryopreserved sterile parasites that were harvested from the salivary glands of infected mosquitoes in compliance with regulatory standards. The parasites had been frozen in a vial for more than two years. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-11-scientists-malaria-parasites-infection.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:00:01 EST news272044390 A Centenary researcher is off to New Delhi to study the impact on cerebral malaria of the major ingredient of turmeric, curcumin. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-10-effects-turmeric-therapy-cerebral-malaria.html Medical research Thu, 18 Oct 2012 08:11:51 EST news269766701 Researchers from Sainte-Justine University Hospital Center and University of Montreal have identified several novel genes that make some children more efficient than others in the way their immune system responds to malaria infection. This world-first in integrative efforts to track down genes predisposing to specific immune responses to malaria and ultimately to identify the most suitable targets for vaccines or treatments was published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences by lead author Dr. Youssef Idaghdour and senior author Pr. Philip Awadalla, whose laboratory has been performing world-wide malaria research for the past 13 years. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-genetic-make-up-children-malaria-infection.html Genetics Wed, 12 Sep 2012 03:43:34 EST news266640203 The malaria species rampant in the Asia-Pacific region has been a significant driver of evolution of the human genome, a new study has shown. An international team of researchers has shown that Plasmodium vivax malaria, the most prevalent malaria species in the Asia-Pacific, is a significant cause of genetic evolution that provides protection against malaria. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-09-benign-malaria-key-driver-human.html Medical research Tue, 04 Sep 2012 17:00:06 EST news265972255 The World Health Organization estimates that in 2011 there were 216 million cases of malaria and 34.2 million people living with HIV. These diseases particularly afflict sub-Saharan Africa, where large incidence of co-infection result in high mortality rates. Yet, in spite of this global pandemic, interactions between the parasite that causes malaria, Plasmodium falciparum, and HIV-1 are poorly understood. However, a new video article in JoVE, the Journal of Visualized Experiments, that describes a novel technique to study the interactions between HIV-1 and P. falciparum in cultured human cells, will allow scientists to explore different parameters of co-infection by the two microbes. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-08-technique-interactions-malaria-parasite-hiv.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 15 Aug 2012 12:44:14 EST news264253435 A pair of provocative studies in the July 2012 issue of The American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene (AJTMH) provides a window into the intense ground war now underway against malaria. In one review, researchers offer new evidence supporting indoor insecticide spraying as a way to dramatically reduce malaria deaths. In another study, scientists in Mali simultaneously affirm the effectiveness of a critical drug to treat malaria infection in the West African malaria "hot zone" amidst concerns that it may follow the path of its predecessors and succumb to resistant parasites already being detected in other parts of the world. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-07-insights-front-lines-malaria.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 03 Jul 2012 17:00:09 EST news260553273 Researchers have developed a new technique to identify hotspots of malaria parasite evolution and track the rise of malarial drug resistance, faster and more efficiently than ever before. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-06-methods-enable-large-scale-analysis-malaria.html Medical research Wed, 13 Jun 2012 13:00:04 EST news258810582 (HealthDay) -- Fixed-dose, combination pyronaridine-artesunate treatment is as effective as mefloquine plus artesunate in treating malaria infection, according to a study published in the April 5 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-04-combination-malaria-treatment-equally-effective.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 05 Apr 2012 13:20:01 EST news252849777 (Medical Xpress) -- Mothers who are treated for malaria may pass on lower levels of natural immunity to their young, animal studies show. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-malaria-immunity-spotlight.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 23 Feb 2012 07:19:43 EST news249203977 A study of almost 3,800 pregnancies has provided the most accurate and direct evidence to date that malaria infection reduces early foetal growth. Low birth weight is the most important risk factor for neonatal mortality in developing countries. The research, carried out on the border of Thailand and Myanmar (Burma), highlights the importance of preventing malaria in pregnancy. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-ultrasound-evidence-effect-malaria-fetal.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Thu, 09 Feb 2012 17:00:07 EST news248008548 A new study suggests that climate change, driven by greenhouse-gas emissions and land-use changes, will cause patterns of malaria infection to change over the next 50 years. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-02-climate-change-effects-malaria.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Fri, 03 Feb 2012 08:50:03 EST news247479385 In the event that a vaccine for the prevention of malaria is licensed and ready for use (such as the research malaria vaccine RTS,S, which currently looks promising), distributing and giving the vaccine to three-month old infants via the World Health Organization's Expanded Programme on Immunization (EPI) will be the most efficient mechanism in high transmission areas but for lower transmission areas, mass vaccination every 5 years might be a more efficient vaccination strategy, a new study has found. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2012-01-malaria-vaccination-mass-transmission-areas.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 17 Jan 2012 17:39:26 EST news246044361 University of Iowa researchers and colleagues have discovered how malaria manipulates the immune system to allow the parasite to persist in the bloodstream. By rescuing this immune system pathway, the research team was able to cure mice of bloodstream malaria infections. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-12-bloodstream-malaria-infection-mice.html Medical research Mon, 12 Dec 2011 11:38:35 EST news242912308 A study conducted by researchers at the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research Institute and their Zambian colleagues detected contrasting patterns of drug resistance in malaria-causing parasites taken from both humans and mosquitoes in rural Zambia. Parasites found in human blood samples showed a high prevalence for pyrimethamine-resistance, which was consistent with the class of drugs widely used to treat malaria in the region. However, parasites taken from mosquitoes themselves had very low prevalence of pyrimethamine-resistance and a high prevalence of cycloguanil-resistant mutants indicating resistance to a newer class of antimalaria drug not widely used in Zambia. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-11-contrasting-patterns-malaria-drug-resistance.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 15 Nov 2011 16:03:04 EST news240594553 Malaria is a major global health concern, and researchers are in need of new therapeutic approaches. To address this concern, a study published Oct. 26 in the online journal PLoS ONE reveals new information about the host cell's treatment of the parasite that causes the disease in mice, opening potential new avenues for research and treatment. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-treatment-mice-malaria-approach-humans.html Medical research Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:31:48 EST news238869096 Researchers at the University of South Florida (USF) College of Public College Health have shown for the first time in a rodent model that the earliest form of malaria parasites can lay dormant in red blood cells and "wake up," or recover, following treatment with the antimalarial drug artesunate. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-10-dormant-malaria-parsites-red-blood.html Medical research Tue, 25 Oct 2011 10:49:26 EST news238758556 Using live but weakened malaria parasites as the basis of a vaccine represents a potentially encouraging anti-malaria strategy, according to results of follow-up animal studies performed after the conclusion of a recent clinical trial in humans. The research was conducted by scientists at the Vaccine Research Center (VRC) of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, part of the National Institutes of Health, working in concert with a large team of collaborators. The findings were published online September 8 in Science Express. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-weakened-malaria-parasites-basis-vaccine.html Medical research Thu, 08 Sep 2011 14:00:16 EST news234708985 Children who live in households that own at least one insecticide-treated bed net are less likely to be infected with malaria and less likely to die from the disease, according to a new study by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-09-insecticide-treated-bed-nets-lowers-child.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Tue, 06 Sep 2011 17:42:40 EST news234549731 When a person living in a malarial area gets a fever, health workers need to know the cause to make absolutely sure they give the right treatment. For many years in sub-Saharan Africa primary health workers have often assumed a fever is caused by malaria, and given antimalarial drugs. This approach means sometimes people receive the wrong treatment for their illness. It also wastes resources and, over time, can promote resistance to available drugs. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-07-simple-rapid-diagnostic-malaria.html Diseases, Conditions, Syndromes Wed, 06 Jul 2011 03:09:48 EST news229140555 A team of researchers have found that pre-existing malaria prevents secondary infection by another Plasmodium strain, the parasite responsible for malaria, by restricting iron availability in the liver of the host. This discovery will be published this Sunday, May 15, in Nature Medicine and has important implications for the management and prevention of malaria, a condition which affects millions of individuals worldwide. http://medicalxpress.com/news/2011-05-malaria-pre-existing-infection.html Medical research Sun, 15 May 2011 13:00:16 EST news224506442