Malaria parasite ‘controls mosquito’

BBC News Rebecca Morelle 16 May 2013

Mosquitoes carrying the malaria parasite are more attracted to human body odour than uninfected insects, scientists report.

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New malaria test kit gives a boost to elimination efforts worldwide

(London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine 17 May 2013) A new, highly sensitive blood test that quickly detects even the lowest levels of malaria parasites in the body could make a dramatic difference in efforts to tackle the disease in the UK and across the world, according to new research.

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Alert as mozzie viruses spread

Townsville Bulletin Emily Macdonald 20 May 2013

TOWNSVILLE’S number of confirmed dengue cases has climbed to 16 with fears a different mosquito-borne virus found in Papua New Guinea will soon reach North Queensland.  

Chikungunya shares many of the clinical signs of dengue, but due to having a shorter incubation period can spread more rapidly.  There have been imported cases of chikungunya in North Queensland in the past, but so far the region has avoided an outbreak.

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Malaria parasites ‘thrive by talking’

The Sydney Morning Herald Bridie Smith May 16, 2013

Scientists have been surprised to learn that malaria parasites ”talk” to each other. And the chatter is crucial to the parasite’s survival and spread in humans.
The breakthrough by researchers from the Walter and Eliza Hall Institute and the Bio21 Institute fundamentally changes scientists’ understanding of the parasite, opening up new paths for the development of antimalarial drugs.

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Coronavirus – the next pandemic?

On Line Opinion Peter Curson 15 May 2013

Here we go again, or do we? Currently we are witnessing the emergence of a new SARS-like coronavirus which seems to have been spreading throughout some Middle East Countries over the last year. So far a small number of cases have been identified of which at least half seem to have been contracted in hospitals. Are we seeing a return of the SARS scenario where hospitals and their staff played a major role in the spread of a deadly infection?

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Study defines level of dengue virus needed for transmission

(Wellcome Trust 13 May 2013) Researchers have identified the dose of dengue virus in human blood that is required to infect mosquitoes when they bite. Mosquitoes are essential for transmitting the virus between people so the findings have important implications for understanding how to slow the spread of the disease.

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Using bacteria to stop malaria

Michigan State University 9-May-2013

Mosquitoes are deadly efficient disease transmitters. Research conducted at Michigan State University, however, demonstrates that they also can be equally adept in curing diseases such as malaria.
A study in the current issue of Science shows that the transmission of malaria via mosquitoes to humans can be interrupted by using a strain of the bacteria Wolbachia in the insects. In a sense, Wolbachia would act as a vaccine of sorts for mosquitoes that would protect them from malaria parasites. Treating mosquitoes would prevent them from transmitting malaria to humans, a disease that in 2010 affected 219 million people and caused an estimated 660,000 deaths.

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Mast cells give clues in diagnosis, treatment of dengue

(Duke University Medical Center 30 April 2013) A protein produced by mast cells in the immune system may predict which people infected with dengue virus will develop life-threatening complications, according to researchers at Duke Medicine and Duke-National University of Singapore.

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Transplant patients died from donor’s disease

ABC News 7 May 2013

A Victorian coroner has found that three women who received organs from the same donor all died of the same rare disease.

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Cambodia tests mass use of repellents in fight against malaria

The Guardian Mark Tran 25 April 2013

Cambodia‘s mortality rate from malaria has dropped sharply in the past 20 years and the government has ambitious plans to eliminate malaria entirely by 2025.

The free distribution of insecticide-treated bednets – used by 95% of the population – has made a big impact on bringing down the death rate from malaria to 1.5 cases per 100,000 people last year.

However, although bednets have significantly reduced the spread of malaria, the disease is increasingly transmitted outdoors and outside sleeping hours, not just in Cambodia but worldwide.

Despite progress in recent years, malaria infects about 219 million people around the world each year, killing an estimated 655,000.

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