Author: ulick

This week our attention was drawn to a tweet by Kenyan lawyer and politician Paul Muite (@Paul_Muite) accusing the Gates Foundation of releasing genetically modified mosquitos in Nairobi. The claim was debunked by Gates foundation supposedly stating “We do not release mosquitoes, operate laboratories that do so, or run vector-control activities in Nairobi or anywhere […]

MalariaWorld this week reports a study ‘Determinants of malaria infection across different districts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Pakistan: a cross-sectional study’ by Haq et al.  The study highlights the multifactorial nature of malaria transmission in KP, Pakistan, with strong associations found between malaria infection and various determinants. Key risk factors identified include younger age, male gender, […]

In my LinkedIn feed this week there was a posting by Nigerian pharmacy assistant Precious Ugwa about undiagnosed customers requesting malaria treatments. This reminded me of the impression I got in Kenya that when people are ill, the first illness they suspect is malaria. One time when I was unwell my friend was encouraging me […]

In MalariaWorld this week there is a link to CBC Youtube Video entitled ‘Malaria vaccine rollout undercut by losses to global health funding’. The highlight of the video is a recent study that found that children who received three doses of Mosquirix™ (RTS,S/AS01) manufactured by GSK (Glaxo Smith Kline) were less likely to suffer from […]

A recent story in Techpoint Africa is a good example of how the scourge of malaria is used to justify new technologies. ‘Sora raises $2.5 million additional seed to eradicate malaria in Africa with AI-powered drones’ by Bolu Abiodun discusses the fundraising by Japanese start-up Sora Technology, that uses drones (see picture) and artificial intelligence […]

In MalariaWorld this week there is reference to the major public health challenge of Malaria in sub-Saharan Africa, and how its burden may be influenced by access to clean water, sanitation, and childhood vitamin A supplementation. ‘Investigating the relationship between malaria incidence and public health infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa’ by Shin is in publication by […]

In MalariaWorld this week there is reference to a publication preprint in BMC Pediatrics ‘The double burden: co-occurrence of malaria and anaemia in children under five in Ghana – a multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression analysis’ by Karikari et al. The study utilised data from the 2022 Ghana Demographic and Health Survey to assess the co-occurrence […]

In MalariaWorld this week there is a news story about an evolutionary model that examines the tradeoffs that limit harm caused by the malaria parasite. An article in phys org discusses the paper ‘Immunity can impose a reproduction–survival tradeoff on human malaria parasites’ by Patterson et al published in the journal, Evolution. The long modelling […]

Two research studies on novel bug hunting were reported this week. Large scale larviciding in Tanga region was reported in MalariaWorld. And genetically modified mosquitos developed in Tanzania were reported by ‘The Multilateral Initiative on Malaria Society’ on LinkedIn. ‘A large-scale mosquito larviciding in Tanga Region, Tanzania, reduced mosquito densities to varying degrees across malaria […]

NTV Uganda reports that health workers are concerned about low uptake of malaria vaccine (reported in MalariaWorld).  In the report, available on YouTube, Dr Myers Lugemwa, head of the Malaria Control Programme at the Health Ministry, attributes the low turnout for the vaccine to a lack of public awareness. Dr Lugemwa reported that when launched […]