The Malawi-Liverpool-Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Programme (MLW) have joined a team of experts on a five-year malaria control programme around a gamepark in Southern Malawi. The researchers will apply the Easy Access Group (EAG) and continuous Malaria Indicator Survey (MIS) tools they developed as part of the ACT Consortium.
Clinicians who use rapid diagnostic tests instead of relying on patients’ symptoms are less likely to overprescribe malaria treatment. The tests are also better at detecting fatal forms of malaria, according to research published today in the British Medical Journal.
Artemisinin-based malaria drugs are viewed as safe, but animal safety studies raised concerns over their potential to cause damage to parts of the brain involved in hearing and balance. A group of scientists reviewed safety studies in humans and found a worrying lack of data from young children, the most vulnerable group. The results were published today in the American Journal of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene.
Motivating volunteers and strengthening support to health systems are critical if community interventions are to become the solution to improving access to primary health care, according to a new study.
Interactive training programmes for health workers could reduce overdiagnosis of malaria by half and help prevent valuable drugs from being wasted on patients who don’t have the disease, according to new research published on World Malaria Day in The Lancet Global Health. The study shows that the roll-out of malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) in endemic countries should run alongside these new training programmes.
A study in Tanzanian drug shops showed that most malaria patients did not receive an antimalarial and most people who obtained one didn’t in fact have malaria.
Integrated Community Case Management (iCCM) is a strategy that enables those living beyond the reach of health facilities to access lifesaving treatments. It should be a national priority and an integral part of national health sector plans, a recent symposium in Ghana has concluded.
Small bite, big threat: too many lives are still at risk of vector-borne diseases. On World Health Day, British Parliamentarians learned about the current status of malaria at an event in Westminster hosted by Malaria No More UK.
Malaria experts from the World Health Organization Western Pacific Region and key partners are reiterating a warning that anti-malarial drug resistance is an ever-growing challenge that needs to be tackled urgently.
Drug shops offering quick diagnostic tests for malaria can improve treatment, but regulation by authorities is also needed, researchers warn.
Improving malaria diagnosis decreased the waste of malaria drugs in patients who didn’t need them. Now, clinicians who don’t know what else is causing fever tend to overprescribe antibiotics, increasing the risk of drug resistance.
Professor David Schellenberg, Director of the ACT Consortium, discusses their work to improve the way artemisinin-based combination therapies are used to treat malaria, as well as the challenges they face working across 10 different countries.
Health workers may now benefit from training manuals to best use malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs). The resource was developed during a clinical trial in Tanzania and the authors encourage other health settings to adapt them.
The World Health Organization recommends using malaria rapid diagnostic tests (RDTs) and prescribing antimalarials only to patients who have a positive test result. As programmes gear up to implement this practice, researchers have reviewed literature and provided guidance to help design policies.
Social scientists from the ACT Consortium released a compendium of guidance notes and templates to help international health researchers design, set up, run, analyse and monitor qualitative research in their studies.
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