Malaria News

September 20, 2024

Top Headlines

Mosquitoes Sense Infrared from Body Heat to Help Track Humans Down

Aug. 22, 2024 — While a mosquito bite is often no more than a temporary bother, in many parts of the world it can be scary. One mosquito species, Aedes aegypti, spreads the viruses that cause over 100,000,000 cases of dengue, yellow fever, Zika and other diseases ...

What Time the Malaria-Bearing Mosquito Bites You Might Make a Difference

Aug. 19, 2024 — Circadian rhythms appear to influence vulnerability to malaria ...

Trojan Horse Method Gives Malaria Parasites a Taste of Their Own Medicine

Aug. 14, 2024 — More than a quarter of Australians over the age of 50 take cholesterol-lowering drugs to prevent heart disease and strokes, but our bodies also need cholesterol to survive. Now, scientists say its role as a basic building block of life holds the key ...

Candidate Malaria Vaccine Provides Lasting Protection in NIH-Sponsored Trials

Aug. 14, 2024 — Recent trials of an experimental malaria vaccine in healthy Malian adults found that all three tested regimens were safe. One of the trials enrolled 300 healthy women ages 18 to 38 years who ...

Latest Headlines

updated 8:44pm EDT

Mapping the Sex Life of Malaria Parasites at Single Cell Resolution, Reveals the Genetics Underlying Malaria Transmission

Aug. 26, 2024 — Malaria is caused by a eukaryotic microbe of the Plasmodium genus, and is responsible for more deaths than all other parasitic diseases combined. In ...

Controlling Mosquito Populations Through Genetic Breeding

July 22, 2024 — Researchers have found a new way to identify genetic targets useful for control of mosquito populations, potentially offering an alternative to insecticides. Their study focused on the genetic basis ...

The Unintended Consequences of Success Against Malaria

July 23, 2024 — The insecticide-treated bed nets and insecticide sprays that were so effective in preventing mosquito bites -- and therefore malaria -- are increasingly viewed as the causes of household pest ...

Origin and Spread of Malaria

June 12, 2024 — Researchers have reconstructed the evolutionary history and global spread of malaria over the past 5,500 years, identifying trade, warfare, and colonialism as major catalysts for its ...

How Climate Change Will Affect Malaria Transmission

May 9, 2024 — A new model for predicting the effects of climate change on malaria transmission in Africa could lead to more targeted interventions to control the disease according to a new study. Previous methods ...

An Adjuvant Made in Yeast Could Lower Vaccine Cost and Boost Availability

May 8, 2024 — Adjuvants make vaccines more effective, though one of the best is an expensive extract from the soap bark tree. To lower the cost and avoid the laborious extraction process from bark, synthetic ...

Source of Pregnancy Complications from Infections Revealed by Placenta Map

May 3, 2024 — The placenta's response to infections from malaria, toxoplasmosis and listeria has been mapped in high resolution, possibly paving the way for new treatment ...

Deeper Understanding of Malaria Parasite Development Unlocks Opportunities to Block Disease Spread

May 2, 2024 — Natural malaria infections have been genetically analysed at a higher resolution than ever before, giving insights that could help understand and ...

Malaria May Shorten Leukocyte Telomeres Among Sub-Saharan Africans

May 2, 2024 — The length of telomeres in white blood cells, known as leukocytes, varies significantly among sub-Saharan African populations, researchers report. Moreover, leukocyte telomere length (LTL) is ...

Circadian Rhythms Can Influence Drugs' Effectiveness

Apr. 25, 2024 — Researchers discovered that more than 300 liver genes are under circadian control: Circadian variations affect how much of a drug is available and how effectively the body can break it ...

Can Climate Change Accelerate Transmission of Malaria? Pioneering Research Sheds Light on Impacts of Temperature

Apr. 24, 2024 — A groundbreaking study combined novel experimental data within an innovative modeling framework to examine how temperature might affect transmission risk of malaria in different environments in ...

How Mosquito Larva Guts Could Help Create Highly Specific Insecticides

Apr. 8, 2024 — Did you know that the world's deadliest animal is the mosquito? And Aedes aegypti is one of the most dangerous. This bug spreads viruses that cause dengue fever, which was recently declared as ...

New Discovery Unravels Malaria Invasion Mechanism

Apr. 3, 2024 — A recent breakthrough sheds light on how the malaria parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, invades human red blood cells. The study reveals the role of a sugar called sialic acid in this invasion process. ...

Mosquito Detectives Track Malaria's History

Apr. 1, 2024 — A group of researchers is calling on colleagues around the world to join them in what they call 'pathogen prospecting' by tracking down archival specimens of mosquitoes in museums and other ...

First DNA Study of Ancient Eastern Arabians Reveals Malaria Adaptation

Feb. 27, 2024 — People living in ancient Eastern Arabia appear to have developed resistance to malaria following the appearance of agriculture in the region around five thousand years ...

Blocking an Essential Nutrient Inhibits Malaria Parasite Growth

Feb. 13, 2024 — Researchers found that by preventing the malaria parasite from scavenging fatty acids, a type of required nutrient, it could no longer ...

Scientists Debunk Role of 'Junk Cells' in Fight Against Malaria

Feb. 8, 2024 — Researchers have discovered a previously unknown ability of a group of immune system cells, known as Atypical B cells (ABCs), to fight infectious diseases such as malaria. The scientists say ABCs ...

Are Environmental Toxins Putting Future Generations at Risk?

Feb. 8, 2024 — In a study that signals potential reproductive and health complications in humans, now and for future generations, researchers have concluded that fathers exposed to environmental toxins, notably ...

African Women Living With HIV Have an Effective Option to Prevent Malaria During Pregnancy

Jan. 13, 2024 — In women living with HIV, preventive treatment with DHA-PPQ is a safe and effective strategy to prevent malaria during pregnancy, according to the final results of the MAMAH clinical ...

Some Mosquitoes Like It Hot

Jan. 8, 2024 — Certain populations of mosquitoes are more heat tolerant and better equipped to survive heat waves than others, according to new ...

Classifying the Natural History of Asymptomatic Malaria

Jan. 4, 2024 — The dynamic lifecycle of the malaria parasite means that the density of the Plasmodium can suddenly drop below the level of detection in asymptomatic people -- especially when older, less sensitive ...

New Approaches in the Fight Against Drug Resistance in Malaria

Nov. 20, 2023 — Malaria is one of the most widespread and deadly infectious diseases worldwide. New compounds are continuously required due to the risk of malaria parasites becoming resistant to the medicines ...

In the Fight Against Malaria-Carrying Mosquitoes, Just Add Soap

Nov. 17, 2023 — ...

First Evidence of How the Asian Malaria Mosquito Is Spreading Drug-Resistant Malaria in Africa

Nov. 8, 2023 — Research has led to the discovery of the role played by the Asian malaria mosquito (Anopheles stephensi) in the spread of drug and diagnosis-resistant malaria in Africa. Malaria is caused by a ...

Specific Gut Bacteria Increase Risk of Severe Malaria

Oct. 30, 2023 — Researchers have identified multiple species of bacteria that, when present in the gut, are linked to an increased risk of developing severe malaria in humans and ...

Potential for Injectable 'Chemical Vaccine' for Malaria Using Atovaquone

Oct. 20, 2023 — Researchers looking to develop a long-acting, injectable malaria preventive using atovaquone have shown in a new study that resistance may not be the challenge scientists thought it was, particularly ...

Endemic Malaria Found in High, Dry Northwestern Kenya

Oct. 12, 2023 — Turkana County in northwestern Kenya was thought to be too dry for the mosquitoes that harbor malaria-causing parasites. But that assumption may have been wrong, according to a new study by malaria ...

The Prevalence of Malaria Infections Varies Among Migrant Populations

Oct. 11, 2023 — The prevalence of malaria infections among migrants from sub-Saharan Africa is considerably high (8%), while Asian and Latin American migrants have a much lower prevalence, according to a new ...

How Male Mosquitoes Compensate for Having Only One X Chromosome

Oct. 6, 2023 — Researchers have discovered the master regulator responsible for balancing the expression of X chromosome genes between males and females in the malaria mosquito. This discovery helps scientists ...

Malaria: Treatment of Plasmodium Falciparum Malaria Patients Under Threat in the Horn of Africa

Sep. 29, 2023 — Diagnosis of Plasmodium falciparum malaria using rapid diagnostic tests and treatment with artemisinin derivatives, the main component of the malaria treatments recommended by the World Health ...