In the news

An experimental hut evaluation of Olyset(R) nets against anopheline mosquitoes after seven years use in Tanzanian villages
Malima RC, Magesa SM, Tunga PK, Mwingira V, Magogo FS, Sudi W, Mosha FW, Curtis CF, Maxwell C, Rowland M
Malaria Journal 2008, 7:38doi:10.1186/1475-2875-7-38 Published 28 Feb 08
Long-lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) are advocated by WHO for protection against malaria. Of the three brands of LLINs currently approved by WHO, Olyset(R) is the only one currently granted full recommendation. After seven years of use in Tanzanian village huts, Olyset nets were still strongly insecticidal. Mosquito mortality decreased by only 20-35% over this period. However, the nets developed holes during prolonged domestic use and would not provide personal protection after seven years unless in good condition and all holes fully repaired. More Info

The Limits and Intensity of Plasmodium falciparum Transmission: Implications for Malaria Control and Elimination Worldwide
Guerra CA, Gikandi PW, Tatem AJ, Noor AM, Smith DL, Hay SI, Snow RW
PLoS Med 5(2): e38 doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.0050038
Published Feb 26 2008
A new global malaria map reveals that just over a third of the world's population is at risk of contracting the deadly disease. However, for many of these people, the risk is much lower than was previously believed. This means that for these people, simple tools such as mosquito nets could help to eliminate the risk entirely. More Info

Household cost of malaria overdiagnosis in rural Mozambique
Hume JCC, Barnish G,  Mangal T,  Armazio L, Streat E, Bates I
Malaria Journal 2008, 7:33 doi:10.1186/1475-2875-7-33 Published 18 February 2008
In a study of two health care providers in a rural district of Mozambique overdiagnosis of malaria resulted in a greater number of healthcare visits and associated cost for adult patients. Investment in accurate malaria diagnosis and appropriate management at primary level is critical for improving health outcomes and reducing poverty. More info

Why don't health workers prescribe ACT? A qualitative study of factors affecting the prescription of artemether-lumefantrine.
Wasunna B, Zurovac D, Goodman CA, Snow RW
Malaria Journal 2008, 7:29doi:10.1186/1475-2875-7-29 Published 5 Feb 08
Kenya recently changed its antimalarial drug policy to a specific artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT), artemether-lumefantrine (AL). New national guidelines on the diagnosis, treatment and prevention were developed and disseminated to health workers together with in-service training. The reasons underlying health workers' non-adherence were researched and a number of key reasons for non-adherence were identified. More info

Major reduction of malaria morbidity with combined vitamin A and zinc supplementation in young children in Burkina Faso: a randomized double blind trial
Zeba AN, Sorgho H, Rouamba N, Zongo I, Rouamba J, Guiguemdé RT, Hamer DH, Mokhtar N and Ouedraogo JB
Nutrition Journal 2008, 7:7doi:10.1186/1475-2891-7-7 Published: 31 January 2008
A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial of  vitamin A with daily zinc supplementation in young children suggested that combined vitamin A plus zinc supplementation may play a key role in malaria control strategies for children in Africa. More info

Impact of long-lasting insecticidal-treated nets (LLINs) and artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) measured using surveillance data, in four African countries. Preliminary report based on four country visits
World Health Organization, Global Malaria Program Surveillance, Monitoring, and Evaluation Unit
31 January 2008
In collaboration with The Global Fund, the World Health Organization evaluated the impact of recent investments in malaria control by conducting field evaluations.  They found strong initial evidence that the combination of LLINs delivered during mass distributions and nationwide distribution of ACTs in the public sector was associated with widespread decline of >50% in in-patient malaria and deaths throughout Rwanda and Ethiopia. The main difference between Ethiopia and Rwanda with dramatic impact, compared with Zambia and Ghana with more limited impact, was sufficient quantities of LLINs delivered in mass distributions in 2005 or 2006. More info

Malaria and how to beat it
Economist.com Jan 31st 2008
A recent study in Kenya suggested providing malarial areas with large numbers of free bed nets brought better results than selling them. Now a new survey carried out by the World Health Organisation (WHO) on behalf of the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Malaria and Tuberculosis, which is to be published on Friday February 1st, has shown that the approach works well in other countries, too. More Info

Household burden of malaria in South Africa and Mozambique: is there a catastrophic impact?
Castillo-Riquelme M, McIntyre D, Barnes K.
Trop Med Int Health. 2008 Jan;13(1):108-22.
A study designed to evaluate treatment-seeking behaviour, financial impact and time lost due to malaria events, in southern Mozambique and eastern South Africa showed a high rate of health seeking in public health facilities, unusual in the African context, which bodes well for high coverage with artemisinin-based combinations, even if only deployed within the public sector. However, despite no or modest charges for public sector primary healthcare, households frequently incur catastrophic expenditure on a single malaria episode. More info

Assessment of the relative advantage of various artesunate-based combination therapies by a multi-treatment Bayesian random-effects meta-analysis.
Jansen FH, Lesaffre E, Penali LK, Zattera MJ, Die-Kakou H, Bissagnene E.
Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2007 Dec;77(6):1005-9.
Over the years, multiple articles on Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (ACTs) were published, highlighting the relative advantages or drawbacks of these combinations. A meta-analysis was designed to assess the relative effect of each combination therapy to artesunate + sulfadoxine-pyrimethamine (4 mg/kg/day for 3 days) showed that the combination artemether-lumefantrine gave the most attractive result. More info

From chloroquine to artemether-lumefantrine: the process of drug policy change in Zambia
Sipilanyambe N, Simon JL, Chanda P, Olumese P, Snow RW and Hamer DH
Malaria Journal 2008, 7:25doi:10.1186/1475-2875-7-25
In 2002 the government of Zambia reviewed its efforts to prevent and treat malaria. Convincing evidence of the failing efficacy of chloroquine resulted in the initiation of a process that eventually led to the development and implementation of a new national drug policy based on artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT).
More info…http://www.malariajournal.com/content/7/1/25

New Malaria Drug Set for Use
Dibba LM
The Daily Observer (Banjul), Posted on January 25, 2008
The Gambia, on Wednesday, ventured officially into using a new drug in malaria treatment called Coartem, following studies across the country showing resistance to chloroquine (CQ) exceeding levels recommended by the World Health Organisation globally.
More info…http://allafrica.com/stories/200801250691.html

Defining and Defeating the Intolerable Burden of Malaria III: Progress and Perspectives
American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene
December 2007, Volume 77, 6 Suppl
Leading research scientists, physicians, and public health experts from around the world have published new insights into the international burden of malaria and how the global community can best combat the disease, in a 340-page supplement containing 42 articles on a diverse range of topics.
More info …http://www.ajtmh.org/content/vol77/6_Suppl/?etoc

We Can't Afford to Wait: The Business Case for Rapid Scale-up of Malaria Control in Africa
Malaria No More and McKinsey & Company on behalf of the Roll Back Malaria Partnership (RBM)
Jan 2008
Providing specific cost and impact data as part of a rigorous business analysis, the report makes a compelling humanitarian and economic case for expanded access to proven malaria-control tools such as long-lasting insecticide-treated mosquito nets, life-saving anti-malarial medicines, and targeted insecticide spraying.
More info… http://www.malarianomore.org/businesscase

Affordable Medicines Facility – malaria (AMFm). Technical design
November 2007
On 29 November 2007, the RBM Partnership Board gave the go ahead for the further development of an Affordable Medicines Facility - malaria (AMFm) - a ground breaking initiative to improve access to safe, effective and affordable malaria medicines.
More info… http://rbm.who.int/partnership/tf/globalsubsidy/AMFmTechProposal.pdf

An interactive model for the assessment of the economic costs and benefits of different rapid diagnostic tests for malaria
Lubell Y, Hopkins H, Whitty CJM, Staedke SG and Mills A
Malaria Journal 2008, 7:21doi:10.1186/1475-2875-7-21
Rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) for malaria are increasingly being considered for routine use in Africa. However, selecting the ideal test for a particular setting depends on many parameters. As an illustration of how the model can be used, a comparison is made of presumptive treatment with two available RDTs, (HRP2 and pLDH) at seven sites in Uganda.
More info… http://www.malariajournal.com/content/7/1/21

Monkey malaria widespread in humans and potentially fatal
PhysOrg.com News Jan 15 2008
Researchers in Malaysia found that patients were infected with Plasmodium knowlesi, a malaria parasite of macaque monkeys. These potentially fatal infections were often misdiagnosed as the normally uncomplicated human malaria caused by P. malariae. Until recently, P. knowlesi was thought to infect only monkeys and natural infections of man were thought to be rare.
More info …http://www.physorg.com/news119625684.html

Clinical malaria in African pregnant women
Bardaji A, Sigauque B, Romagosa C, Bruni L, Sanz S, Mabunda S et al
Malaria Journal 2008, 7:27doi:10.1186/1475-2875-7-27
Symptoms suggestive of malaria were very frequent among pregnant women attending a rural maternity clinic in an area of stable malaria transmission in Mozambique. However, less than a third of them were parasitaemic. In the absence of microscopy or rapid diagnostic tests, a large proportion of women would be unnecessarily receiving antimalarial drugs, often with unknown safety profiles for pregnancy.
More info …http://www.malariajournal.com/content/7/1/27

Is the cure for a devastating disease a simple piece of cloth?
Williams A
HPROnline  Posted on Thursday, January 24, 2008
While there is widespread agreement that treated mosquito nets hold great potential for fighting the spread of malaria, a consensus has not yet been reached on the best way to distribute the nets. The international development community remains divided between those who believe the nets should be mass distributed for free in villages plagued by malaria-carrying mosquitoes, and those who advocate integrating the nets more organically into local economies, an approach called social marketing.
More Info http://hprsite.squarespace.com/a-promising-solution-012008/

The use of DDT in malaria vector control. WHO position statement 2007
More info…http://www.who.int/malaria/docs/IRS/DDT/DDTposition.pdf

Insecticide-treated mosquito nets: a WHO Position Statement 2007
This Position Statement from the WHO Global Malaria Programme (WHO/GMP)
describes a shift in guidance on malaria prevention through the use of insecticide treated nets (ITNs). The best opportunity for rapidly scaling-up malaria prevention is the free or highly subsidized distribution of long lasting insecticidal nets (LLINs) through existing public health services (both routine and campaigns).
More info …http://www.who.int/malaria/docs/itn/ITNspospaperfinal.pdf

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