Funded by a $1.5 million grant from the National Institutes of Health, scientists at Binghamton University, State University of New York, hope to understand how the malaria parasite Plasmodium falciparum evolved resistance to the once-effective medication chloroquine.

By mapping a specialized sensory organ that the malaria mosquito uses to zero in on its human prey, an international team of researchers has taken an important step toward developing new and improved repellants and attractants that can be used to reduce the threat of malaria, generally considered the most prevalent life-threatening disease in the world.

It is now possible to analyze large tissue samples for signs of malaria with much greater detail and accuracy. To do this, scientists at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada and Spain's University of Murcia used a Macroscope„¦, a patented technology developed by Biomedical Photometrics Inc., which enables imaging of much larger tissue samples at a very high resolution in this case tissue infected with malaria.

Malaria is the world’s most frequent parasitic disease, affecting more than 100 countries in the tropical zones, mostly in Africa, and 40% of the world population, with more than a million deatths per year. As a consequence countries affected by malaria also tend to be economically disadvantaged.

The mosquitoes responsible for malaria transmission to humans belong to the Anopheles genus. One of the best known and most extensively studied is Anopheles gambiae, Africa’s principal malaria vector. The protection recommended by the World Health Organization for people at risk from this devastating disease is the use of mosquito nets impregnated with pyrethroids, of low toxicity for mammals and highly active against mosquitoes.

The CRESIB has today presented the research programme on malaria by Plasmodium vivax, a parasite causing over 70 million yearly cases of malaria in the world. This new programme will be developed in coordination with the leading international centres and researchers on P.vivax.

Lack of coordination between donors and international health agencies is leading to the needless deaths of too many African children from malaria, says a team of health researchers from Burkina Faso and the University of Heidelberg.

One person dies of it every 30 seconds, it rivals HIV and tuberculosis as the world's most deadly infection and the vast majority of its victims are under five years old. Now, just over 100 years since Britain's Sir Ronald Ross was awarded the Nobel Prize for finally proving that malaria is transmitted by mosquitoes, researchers at The University of Nottingham believe they have made a significant breakthrough in the search for an effective vaccine.

Richard Idro, M.M.E.D., of the Kenya Medical Research Institute, Kilifi, Kenya and colleagues conducted a study to determine the incidence and neurological involvement of African children with acute falciparum malaria (a severe type of malaria).

Despite improvements in the ability to diagnose malaria, these diagnostic tests are often underused in Zambia, and patients with negative test results are often prescribed anti-malaria medications, according to a study in the May 23/30 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on malaria.

Ugandan children who received the combination therapy of artemether-lumefantrine experienced a lower rate of treatment failure compared to other combination therapies, according to a study in the May 23/30 issue of JAMA, a theme issue on malaria.

Johns Hopkins University researchers have cured malaria-infected mice with single shots of a new series of potent, long lasting synthetic drugs modeled on an ancient Chinese herbal folk remedy.