1.03.2010
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Announcements / Press Releases
RBM partners focus on preventing malaria in pregnancy through antenatal care [RBM WPWG] — (English)
Strengthening antenatal care to prevent malaria is a commanding theme of the 12th meeting of the Malaria in Pregnancy (MIP) Working Group of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership. Diverse RBM partners, including country participants from Cambodia, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Indonesia and Kenya share their specific experiences, discuss technical challenges and research opportunities, and make recommendations for managing malaria in pregnancy in the Asia Pacific region. Refining the terms of reference of MIP Working Group to better address the needs of regions and countries is a key item on the meeting's agenda...
Appel à candidature: Délégation de soutien du groupe d’intérêt des ONGs du Sud [RBM] — (English)
LA DATE DE CLOTURE pour toutes les lettres de candidature à la Délégation de soutien du groupe d'intérêt des ONGs du Sud est fixée à un mois à compter de la publication (soit le 14 mars 2010 minuit, heure d'Europe centrale)...
[English version]
Sanaria Inc. Receives Multi-Year U.S. NIH Phase II Small Business Innovation Research Grant to Develop a Genetically Attenuated Whole Parasite Malaria Vaccine [Sanaria Inc.] — (English)
Sanaria Inc. has received additional support from the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) of the National Institutes of Health in the form of a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) Grant. The three-year award totaling approximately $3 million will support collaborative research by investigators at Sanaria and Columbia University. This new funding extends previous NIAID supported efforts at Sanaria and Columbia to develop genetically modified strains of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum that are unable to cause disease, yet stimulate protective immunity when administered as a live, whole parasite malaria vaccine. “There is considerable excitement about whole parasite malaria vaccines, and research towards developing genetically modified strains for such vaccines is at the cutting edge of this field,” states Dr. Christian Loucq, Director of the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative...
The Sixth Report - the Control of Malaria 2005-15: progress and priorities towards Eradication [All-Party Parliamentary Group on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases] — (English)
This sixth report of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Malaria and Neglected Tropical Diseases reviews progress since its first meeting in 2004, with a focus on evidence submitted during 2008-10. The report starts with an overview of changes in the burden of disease in recent years before reviewing the most important currently available tools to prevent and treat malaria, drawing on testimony to highlight the critical issues surrounding deployment of these tools today. Section 4 presents an overview of funding for malaria control and research before considering the issues of leadership, co-ordination and co-operation. Finally, we touch on the prospects for elimination and, ultimately, eradication of this terrible, but eminently preventable, killer....
Supporting Community Responses to Malaria [STOP MALARIA NOW!] — (English)
STOP MALARIA NOW! developed a new Training Manual to strengthen capacities of CBOs in application processes of the Global Fund to Fight HIV/Aids, Tuberculosis and Malaria. ...
Geneva Health Forum and the Global Access to Health Platform [Geneva University Hospitals and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva in partnership with the main international organizations active in health in Geneva] — (English)
A joint initiative launched by the Geneva University Hospitals and the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Geneva in partnership with the main international organizations active in health in Geneva and around the world, the Geneva Health Forum and the Global Access to Health Platform bring together the major stakeholders in global access to health - from field workers to policy-makers. The Forum and the Platform together form a developing global network for international and inter-sectoral dialogue, which has the vision of facilitating the strengthening of health systems and basic health services, striving to keep global access to health on the international agenda...
Malaria Control in Humanitarian Crises Intensive Training Workshop [MENTOR] — (English)
Application Deadline – April 16th, 2010...
World Bank Professional and Technical Staff Opportunities Newsletter [World Bank] — (English)
The World Bank Group’s mission is to fight poverty and improve the living standards of people in the developing world. At The World Bank, we continue our focus on strengthening our core competitive advantage – its people – by hiring and leveraging diverse talents...
Clinton HIV/AIDS Initiative (CHAI) - Access Programs Malaria Program Manager, Nigeria [CHAI] — (English)
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Articles requiring subscription
Reducing empiricism in malaria vaccine design [The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Volume 10, Issue 3, Pages 204 - 211, March 2010, doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(09)70329-9] — (English)
Gains in the control of malaria and the promising progress of a malaria vaccine that is partly efficacious do not reduce the need for a high-efficacy vaccine in the longer term. Evidence supports the feasibility of developing a highly efficacious malaria vaccine. However, design of candidate malaria vaccines remains empirical and is necessarily based on many unproven assumptions because much of the knowledge needed to design vaccines and to predict efficacy is not available. Data to inform key questions of vaccine science might allow the design of vaccines to progress to a less empirical stage, for example through availability of assay results associated with vaccine efficacy. We discuss six strategic gaps in knowledge that contribute to empiricism in the design of vaccines. Comparative evaluation, assay and model standardisation, greater sharing of information, collaboration and coordination between groups, and rigorous evaluation of existing datasets are steps that can be taken to enable reductions in empiricism over time...
Quinine for the treatment of malaria in pregnancy [The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Volume 10, Issue 3, Pages 140 - 141, March 2010, doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(10)70008-6] — (English)
Adoke Yeka and colleagues1 rightly call for the discontinuation of quinine monotherapy in sub-Saharan Africa. However, combination therapies using quinine for the treatment of uncomplicated malaria in pregnancy were discounted. We agree that artemether with lumefantrine, azithromycin, artesunate with mefloquine, or dihydroartemisinin with piperaquine should be investigated for their potential use in the treatment of pregnant women with uncomplicated malaria.1 However, with the exception of azithromycin, all of these compounds are contraindicated in the first trimester...
Is it too soon to eliminate quinine? [The Lancet Infectious Diseases, Volume 10, Issue 3, Pages 141 - 142, March 2010, doi:10.1016/S1473-3099(10)70009-8] — (English)
Adoke Yeka and colleagues 1 question the use of quinine monotherapy as a second-line treatment in Africa in the era of artemisinin-based combination therapy. We discuss the rationale for continuing to treat malaria in Africa with quinine...
Larvicidal activity of Cymbopogon citratus (DC) Stapf. and Croton macrostachyus Del. against Anopheles arabiensis Patton, a potent malaria vector [Eur Rev Med Pharmacol Sci 2010; 14 (1) : 57-62 ] — (English)
The present investigation establishes that these plant extracts could serve as potent mosquito larvicidal agents against Anopheles arabiensis. However, their mode of actions and larvicidal efficiency under the field conditions should be scrutinized and determined in the near future...
Personal protection by long-lasting insecticidal hammocks against the bites of forest malaria vectors [Tropical Medicine & International Health Volume 15 Issue 3, Pages 336 - 341] — (English)
Even if this LLIH is not inducing full protection against the bites of malaria vectors, it could prove effective in protecting forest workers and villagers before sleeping time. LLIH can be an additional and valuable tool in eliminating artemisinin-resistant malaria in the region....
In vitro sensitivity of Plasmodium falciparum to conventional and novel antimalarial drugs in Papua New Guinea [Tropical Medicine & International Health Volume 15 Issue 3, Pages 342 - 349, Published Online: 11 Jan 2010] — (English)
Most PNG isolates are resistant to CQ in vitro but not to other ACT partner drugs. The non-isotopic semi-automated high-throughput nature of the Plasmodium lactate dehydrogenase assay facilitates the convenient serial assessment of local parasite sensitivity, so that emerging resistance can be identified with relative confidence at an early stage...
Imaging liver-stage malaria parasites [Cellular Microbiology Published Online: 19 Feb 2010] — (English)
Plasmodium parasites, the causative agents of malaria, first invade and develop within hepatocytes before invading red blood cells and causing symptomatic disease. Due to the low infection rates in vitro and in vivo, the liver-stage of Plasmodium infection is not very amenable to biochemical assays, but the large size of the parasite at this stage in comparison to Plasmodium blood stages makes it accessible to microscopic analysis. A variety of imaging techniques has been used to this aim, ranging from electron microscopy to widefield epifluorescence and laser scanning confocal microscopy. High-speed live video microscopy of fluorescent parasites in particular has radically changed our view on key events in Plasmodium liver stage development. This includes the fate of motile sporozoites inoculated by Anopheles mosquitoes as well as the transport of merozoites within merosomes from the liver tissue into the blood vessel. It is safe to predict that in the near future the application of the latest microscopy techniques in Plasmodium research will bring important insights and allow us spectacular views of parasites during their development in the liver...
New insights into protein export in malaria parasites [Cellular Microbiology, Published Online: 19 Feb 2010] — (English)
In order to survive and promote its virulence the malaria parasite must export hundreds of its proteins beyond an encasing vacuole and membrane into the host red blood cell. In the last few years, several major advances have been made that have significantly contributed to our understanding of this export process. These include (i) the identification of sequences that direct protein export (a signal sequence and a motif termed PEXEL), which have allowed predictions of the exportomes of Plasmodium species that are the cause of malaria; (ii) the recognition that the fate of proteins destined for export is already decided within the parasite's endoplasmic reticulum and involves the PEXEL motif being recognised and cleaved by the aspartic protease plasmepsin V; and (iii) the discovery of the Plasmodium translocon of exported proteins (PTEX) that is responsible for the passage of proteins across the vacuolar membrane. We review protein export in Plasmodium and these latest developments in the field that have now provided a new platform from which trafficking of malaria proteins can be dissected...
Genetic diversity of the Plasmodium vivax merozoite surface protein-5 locus from diverse geographic origins [Gene, doi:10.1016/j.gene.2010.02.007] — (English)
These findings are concordant with a substantial reduction in number of P. vivax cases in southern Thailand during the past decade, followed by a very recent population expansion. Therefore, spatio-temporal monitoring of parasite population genetics provides important implications for disease control...
An Intra-Host Mathematical Model on Interaction Between HIV and Malaria [Bulletin of Mathematical Biology, 10.1007/s11538-010-9515-6] — (English)
n this paper a mathematical model is proposed for the interaction of the immune system with HIV viruses and malaria parasites in an individual host. It consists of a system of three coupled ordinary differential equations, which represents the rate of change in the concentration of malaria parasites, HIV viruses and immunity effector within a host, respectively...
Systematic review: Cochrane Review highlights the need for more targeted research on the tolerability of malaria chemoprophylaxis in travellers [Evid Based Med 2010;15:25-26] — (English)
The recent Cochrane Collaboration review by Jacquerioz and Croft on drugs to prevent malaria in travellers is a welcome evaluation of randomised controlled trials of malaria chemoprophylaxis in non-immune individuals. The goal of the systematic review was to evaluate the efficacy, safety and tolerability of atovaquoneproguanil, doxycycline and mefloquine (the three priority regimens for malaria prophylaxis) compared with each other, with the defunct combination chloroquineproguanil and with primaquine (considered in some countries to be a candidate for chemoprophylaxis of travellers’ malaria)...
Policy development in malaria vector management in Mozambique, South Africa and Zimbabwe [Health Policy and Planning, doi:10.1093/heapol/czq008] — (English)
Both IRS and ITNs have a place in integrated malaria vector management, but pro-IRS interests and ideas slowed or prevented the uptake of ITNs. Policy makers needed more than evidence from trials to change from the time-honoured IRS strategy that they perceived was working. Those intending to promote new policies such as ITNs should examine the interests and ideas motivating key stakeholders and their own institutions, and identify where shifts in thinking or coalitions among the like-minded may be possible...
Modeling of hemodynamics arising from malaria infection [Journal of Biomechanics, doi:10.1016/j.jbiomech.2010.01.011] — (English)
We propose a numerical model of hemodynamics arising from malaria infection. This model is based on a particle method, where all the components of blood are represented by the finite number of particles. A two-dimensional spring network of membrane particles is employed for expressing the deformation of malaria infected red blood cells (IRBCs). Malaria parasite within the IRBC is modeled as a rigid object. This model is applied to the stretching of IRBCs by optical tweezers, the deformation of IRBCs in shear flow, and the occlusion of narrow channels by IRBCs. We also investigate the effects of IRBCs on the rheological property of blood in micro-channels. Our results indicate that apparent viscosity is drastically increased for the period from the ring stage and the trophozoite stage, whereas it is not altered in the early stage of infection...
Factors influencing implementation of the Ministry of Health-led private medicine retailer programmes on malaria in Kenya [BMC Public Health. 2010 Feb 24;10(1):93] — (English)
Understanding the context and implementation processes of PMR programmes and the perspectives of key actors are critical to identifying measures to support their effective implementation. Financial barriers underlie many described challenges, with important implications for policies on subsidies in this sector. In spite of barriers to implementation, increased exposure to programme activities promoted trust and improved relationships between PMRs and their clients and trainers, strengthening feasibility of such interventions. Public information can strengthen PMR training programmes by engaging local communities and may facilitate performance monitoring of PMRs by their clients...
The dynamics of mutations associated with anti-malarial drug resistance in Plasmodium falciparum [Trends in Parasitology, doi:10.1016/j.pt.2009.09.008] — (English)
The evolution of resistance in Plasmodium falciparum against safe and affordable drugs such as chloroquine (CQ) and sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (SP) is a major global health threat. Investigating the dynamics of resistance against these antimalarial drugs will lead to approaches for addressing the problem of resistance in malarial parasites that are solidly based in evolutionary genetics and population biology. In this article, we discuss current developments in population biology modeling and evolutionary genetics. Despite great advancements achieved in the past decade, understanding the complex dynamics of mutations conferring drug resistance in P. falciparum requires approaches that consider the parasite population structure among other demographic processes...
Antimalaria drug resistance: the mono–combi–counterfeit triangle [Expert Review of Anti-infective Therapy, November 2009, Vol. 7, No. 9, Pages 1039-1042 , DOI 10.1586/eri.09.85] — (English)
esistant malaria parasites pose a major public health threat. Recent papers suggest that resistance to artemisinins is emerging in Plasmodium falciparum malaria from southeast (SE) Asia [1–3], and chloroquine and primaquine resistance in Plasmodium vivax malaria is emerging in several countries in the same region [4]. Artemisinins are currently the main drugs for controlling drug-resistant malaria, and resistant parasites suggest a frightening scenario. Although new antimalaria compounds are in the pipeline, no new drug is likely to be able to replace artemisinins in the near future...
The Summary Index of Malaria Surveillance (SIMS): a stable index of malaria within India [Population Health Metrics 2010, 8:1doi:10.1186/1478-7954-8-1] — (English)
This measure should provide a useful tool for researchers looking to summarize geographic or temporal trends in malaria in India, and can be readily applied by administrators with no mathematical or scientific background. We include a spreadsheet that allows simple calculation of the index for researchers and local administrators. Similar principles are likely applicable worldwide, though further validation is needed before using the SIMS outside India...
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