Suriname has become the first Amazonian country to eliminate malaria after 70 years of fighting the mosquito-borne disease, the World Health Organization (WHO) announced Monday.
Jul 1, 2025
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Malaria cases in the Asia Pacific region have surged in the last few years, reaching 4.8 million in 2024 and putting the region further off track to reaching its elimination goal by 2030, a summit heard.
Jun 24, 2025
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Malaria is a life-threatening disease affecting people globally. It is spread by mosquitoes carrying Plasmodium parasites that infect and hide in red blood cells, making them difficult for the immune system to detect.
Jun 24, 2025
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Monoclonal antibodies provide protection against a wide range of infectious microbes, and now, in a series of elegant laboratory experiments, scientists have uncovered how a pair of these lab-engineered molecules fight malaria.
Scientists say they have new experimental evidence of a novel role for bilirubin, a natural yellow pigment found in the body, in protecting humans from the worst effects of malaria and potentially other infectious diseases. ...
Jun 12, 2025
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Malaria is one of the deadliest diseases spread by mosquitoes. Each year, hundreds of millions of people worldwide are infected and half a million people die from the disease.
Jun 11, 2025
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Northwestern scientists investigating severe malaria infections in children have uncovered key biological markers that could help guide future treatments, according to a study published in Nature Communications.
Jun 10, 2025
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The "catastrophic" freeze on U.S. funding for malaria has halted prevention programs across Africa and also threatens to stall advances in genomic research, says Jane Carlton, director of the Johns Hopkins Malaria Research ...
Jun 2, 2025
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A potent combination of antimalarial compounds added to bed nets blocked parasite transmission in mosquitoes while circumventing insecticide resistance, according to a new study led by researchers at Harvard T.H. Chan School ...
May 21, 2025
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The international community must protect global responses to HIV, tuberculosis (TB), and malaria to serve humanity's collective interests, according to an opinion article published in the open-access journal PLOS Global Public ...
May 16, 2025
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Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease of humans and other animals caused by eukaryotic protists of the genus Plasmodium. The disease results from the multiplication of Plasmodium parasites within red blood cells, causing symptoms that typically include fever and headache, in severe cases progressing to coma or death. It is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions, including much of Sub-Saharan Africa, Asia, and the Americas.
Five species of Plasmodium can infect and be transmitted by humans. Severe disease is largely caused by Plasmodium falciparum while the disease caused by Plasmodium vivax, Plasmodium ovale, and Plasmodium malariae is generally a milder disease that is rarely fatal. Plasmodium knowlesi is a zoonosis that causes malaria in macaques but can also infect humans.
Malaria transmission can be reduced by preventing mosquito bites by distribution of mosquito nets and insect repellents, or by mosquito-control measures such as spraying insecticides and draining standing water (where mosquitoes breed). Despite a clear need, no vaccine offering a high level of protection currently exists. Efforts to develop one are ongoing. A number of medications are also available to prevent malaria in travelers to malaria-endemic countries (prophylaxis).
A variety of antimalarial medications are available. Severe malaria is treated with intravenous or intramuscular quinine or, since the mid-2000s, the artemisinin derivative artesunate, which is superior to quinine in both children and adults. Resistance has developed to several antimalarial drugs, most notably chloroquine.
There were an estimated 225 million cases of malaria worldwide in 2009. An estimated 655,000 people died from malaria in 2010, a 5% decrease from the 781,000 who died in 2009 according to the World Health Organization's 2011 World Malaria Report, accounting for 2.23% of deaths worldwide. Ninety percent of malaria-related deaths occur in sub-Saharan Africa, with ~60% of deaths being young children under the age of five. Plasmodium falciparum, the most severe form of malaria, is responsible for the vast majority of deaths associated with the disease. Malaria is commonly associated with poverty, and can indeed be a cause of poverty and a major hindrance to economic development.
This text uses material from Wikipedia licensed under CC BY-SA
