Malaria

Do you know what the deadliest disease is? Hint: It's not Ebola (viral particles seen here in a digitally colorized microscopic image, at top right, along with similar depictions of other contagious diseases)

Which Contagious Diseases Are The Deadliest?

4:47pm September 16, 2014

by Diane Cole

To put Ebola in context, we tried to find a list of the deadliest contagious diseases. We couldn't. So with the help of scientists and health agencies, we came up with a rundown of the world's worst.

A red blood cell infected with malaria parasites (blue) sits next to normal cells (red).

Experimental Malaria Vaccine Shows Promise In Human Test

11:02am August 09, 2013

by Jason Beaubien

In a preliminary study, a new type of vaccine offers strong protection against malaria when given at high doses. The study was extremely small and short-term. But health leaders say they are cautiously optimistic about the approach.

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An extract of sweet wormwood has been used in China for thousands of years to treat malaria, but being able to make mass quantities of the extract has been elusive, until now.

A New Way To Make The Most Powerful Malaria Drug

7:39pm April 10, 2013

by Jason Beaubien

The relatively scarce "sweet wormwood" plant has long been the only source of the herbal drug artemisinin. A new trick for making artemisinin in the lab should help even out supplies around the world, scientists say, and cut the cost of malaria treatment.

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Chiara Andolina, a malaria researcher in Thailand, feeds her mosquito colony by letting the insects bite her right arm. These mosquitoes are picky and will dine only on live human blood.

Health & Safety

Mosquito Maven Takes Bites For Malaria Research

11:47am January 02, 2013

by Jason Beaubien

A scientist in Thailand raises mosquito colonies so she can study a new malaria drug. The insects are quite spoiled — they'll eat only live human blood. So she feeds them "breakfast" each day from her right arm.

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Dr. Aun Pyae Phyo examines a baby at the Whampa malaria clinic on the Thailand-Myanmar border.

A View From The Ground: Thailand Confronts Drug-Resistant Malaria

3:16pm December 20, 2012

Global deaths from malaria have dropped sharply in the past decade, thanks in part to powerful drugs called artemisinins. But on the border between Thailand and Myanmar, doctors are starting to see cracks in artemisinin's armor. The medicine is working more slowly, and sometimes not at all.

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While the Office of Malaria Control in War Areas focused on stopping malaria in the U.S. during War World II, the U.S. Army launched an aggressive campaign to combat the parasite among troops. In 1945, it distributed a monthly pinup calendar to soldiers i

Health & Safety

How The U.S. Stopped Malaria, One Cartoon At A Time

1:28pm December 20, 2012

by Jason Beaubien

With publicity campaigns, radio jingles and pinups, the government helped eliminate the parasitic disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still fighting malaria at home and abroad.

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