Author: ulick

Just two weeks after reporting that Ivermectin was not effective at preventing malaria, I am surprised to see the lead story in MalariaWorld this week is ‘New research supports ivermectin as an effective strategy to control malaria transmission’. Ivermectin to Control Malaria —  A Cluster-Randomized Trial by Chaccour et al reports from a study in […]

Malaria is much less of an issue in Southern Africa than in my current abode in East Africa. But it was a trip to Botswana a few years ago that first drew my attention to this tropical malady. While my destination near Gaborone in the south was not on the malaria map, Kasane in the […]

Ivermectin is an anti-parasite medication used to treat parasitic diseases, including parasitic worms, hookworm, whipworm, and external parasites and many others off label. Ivermectin works by paralyzing muscles in parasites, causing them to die. Since malaria is supposedly caused by a plasmodium parasite transmitted by mosquito bites, one might expect this powerful anti-parasitic medication to […]

The malaria community was abuzz this week with news of the approval of a drug to treat babies 2-5 kg for malaria. Swissmedic approved Riamet Baby (also known as Coartem baby), the first drug designed specifically to treat malaria in very young children. It is available as a dispersible, cherry-flavoured formulation to help improve administration. […]

In MalariaWorld this week the study ‘Knowledge, attitudes, and practices regarding malaria in rural Uganda: a cross-sectional study’ by Cathorall et al is featured. In four villages in rural Uganda 106 adults, heads of household, were questions about a variety of issues related to malaria and, in particular, bed net use. The major findings from […]

An architectural blog article referenced in MalariaWorld provides further support for the linkage of occurrence of malaria to the quality of housing to which I have frequently made reference.  ‘Can better housing help prevent malaria? The Star Homes Project in Sub-Saharan Africa’ by Lonati in designwanted.com describes a custom-built housing project in Mtwara region of […]

Despite underwhelming performance (see my June 6, 2025 post) the malaria vaccines, that were tested against a rabies vaccine and not a true placebo (see February 8, 2025, December 22, 2024, August 11, 2024, & June 5, 2024) are being promoted heavily in malaria stricken areas, selling people hope that can not be backed by […]

Two articles in Malaria World this week describing research in East Africa provide more evidence suggesting that the main factor correlated with malaria is poverty. ‘Household practices and infrastructure associated with high Plasmodium falciparum infection rates among children under five years old in Northern Uganda’ by Echodu et al found housing structures, particularly mud/clay walls […]

Malaria vaccines is a hot research topic in Malaria World and is addressed this week in two highlighted news articles and three research papers. One research paper is a review ‘Malaria Vaccines: Current Achievements and Path Forward’ by Chen et al. It summarises the current establishment views describing the two approved vaccines, RTS, S/AS01(Mosquirix by […]

There are a few articles this week in Malaria World discussing accuracy of tests. There are two types of tests is common use. The first is old fashioned microscopy that is considered the ‘gold standard’. A drop of blood is smeared on an microscope slide and it is inspected visually for plasmodia. This method requires […]