Global News Post: Malaria

New Anti-Malaria Drug Approved for Treatment in India

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</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span dir="LTR"></span>  </span><span dir="RTL" lang="AR-SA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ascii-font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-hansi-font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">HOUSTON (NNN-Bernama) -- A new drug called SynriamTM considered to be a breakthrough in malaria cases has been approved for treatment of adults in India, Press Trust of India reported. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Invented by a team of researchers at the University of Nebraska Medical Centre (UNMC), the medicine is considered to be a significant invention in the wake of traditional drugs increasingly proving ineffective against the deadly malarial parasite. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Jonathan Vennerstrom, who led an international team to create the drug compound leading to development of SynriamTM, believes the drug will play a key role in reducing the number of deaths from malaria. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span dir="LTR"></span>"With more than 200 million cases of malaria each year, the potential impact this drug could have on saving and improving lives worldwide is significant," said Vennerstrom, a professor at the UNMC College of Pharmacy. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Tim Wells, chief scientific officer of Geneva-based not-for-profit <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">organisation Medicines for Malaria Venture (MMV), said the completion of a phase III study in Indian adults and the approval of the combination by the Indian regulators was a major milestone. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span dir="LTR"></span>"We look forward to more data from patients in Africa and from studies with children, since this is where the vast majority of the disease is," he said. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Courtney Fletcher, dean of UNMC College of Pharmacy, said another benefit of arterolane, the key component of the new drug, is that it is a synthetic medicine. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span dir="LTR"></span><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span dir="LTR"></span>"This is an important advance in anti-malaria drugs. Since it's a synthetic drug, it doesn't depend on the availability of a natural plant source like some other anti-malarials, which also makes it less expensive," said Fletcher. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="direction: ltr; text-align: justify; unicode-bidi: embed;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS","sans-serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The drug is believed to have fewer side effects and does not need to be taken with food. -- NNN-BERNAMA<o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

New Anti-Malaria Drug Approved for Treatment in India

HOUSTON (NNN-Bernama) -- A new drug called SynriamTM considered to be a breakthrough in malaria cases has been approved for treatment o...

How Malaria Was Spread in South America?

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</span></h3><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 15.75pt; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">By<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><a href="http://www.groundreport.com/multiplenews"><span class="apple-converted-space"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;"> </span></span><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Multiple News</span></a><span class="apple-converted-space"> </span>  <span class="apple-converted-space"> <span id="article_date"></span> <o:p></o:p></span></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"></span><br clear="all" style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" /> <br clear="all" style="text-align: -webkit-auto;" /> <span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";"><a href="http://www.groundreport.com/US/How-Malaria-Was-Spread-in-South-America/2943433" target="_blank"><span style="background: white; color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">GroundReport</span></a> - </span></i><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Scientists have long debated how and where it originated malaria infection caused by a parasite transmitted by the bite of a mosquito.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
Now an international team of scientists seems to have found the answer.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
Genetic analysis of the parasite Plasmodium falciparum revealed that he came to South America, relatively recently, from <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place> to the transatlantic slave trade.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Malaria, a disease that affects 500 million people each year, is endemic in many regions of the world but until now it was unclear how the parasite spread.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
There are five known species of this organism are known to infect humans, but P. falciparum, which is widespread in tropical and subtropical regions is the most lethal, causing the deaths of more than one million people each year.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
Although it has been thought that the P. falciparum originated in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>, no one knew how they were the routes of spread to other regions.<br />
For example, one theory is that it expanded into <st1:place w:st="on">Asia</st1:place> some 6,000 years ago with the emergence of agricultural societies, which increased mosquito populations.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
But other theories state that the P. falciparum spread 60,000 years ago along with the populations of Homo sapiens who emigrated from <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>.<span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><br />
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As to how the disease came to <st1:place w:st="on">South America</st1:place>, the assumptions mentioned both European settlers and the African slave trade, but the evidence so far not been conclusive.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;"><br />
The research, coordinated by Professor Francisco Ayala of the <st1:placetype w:st="on">University</st1:placetype> of <st1:placename w:st="on">California</st1:placename>, <st1:city w:st="on">Irvine</st1:city>, collected samples of human blood infected with P. falciparum in 24 regions of the world including Africa, Middle East, Southeast Asia and <st1:place w:st="on">South America</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">DNA analysis of the samples showed that the populations of the parasite in South America were subdivided into two major genetic groups: the north, to inlcuía peoples of <st1:country-region w:st="on">Colombia</st1:country-region>, and southern populations of French Guyana, <st1:country-region w:st="on">Brazil</st1:country-region> and <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">Bolivia</st1:place></st1:country-region>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">Subsequent testing of genetic linkage of these two groups with African falciparum showed that both were introduced independently during the transatlantic slave trade.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">This means that the disease reached the continent between the ages 16 and 19, much more recently than had been thought until now.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">"Some people argue that the disease has existed in the region for thousands of years," says Professor Ayala.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">"What is clearly shown that malignant malaria has been in <st1:country-region w:st="on"><st1:place w:st="on">America</st1:place></st1:country-region> for only about 300 or 500 years," he adds.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">According to the scientist, the finding also of historical interest may have "important implications for health."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">"The findings reveal the important influence of human migration in the genetic diversity of P. falciparum."<o:p></o:p></span></div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div style="line-height: 15.75pt; margin-bottom: 3.0pt; margin-left: 0in; margin-right: 0in; margin-top: 0in; text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS"; mso-bidi-font-family: Arial;">"And it could explain the emergence of drug resistant malaria," he adds. <span class="apple-converted-space"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></div></div>

How Malaria Was Spread in South America?

By Multiple News GroundReport - Scientists have long debated how and where it originated malaria infection caused by a para...

WHO: Malaria Deaths Drop 20 Percent Since 2000

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</span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The World Health Organization reports that deaths from malaria around the world have dropped more than 20 percent since 2000.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The U.N. agency says deaths dropped from 985,000 in 2000 to about 780,000 in 2009.<span>  </span>Most deaths occur among children living in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place>.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The WHO released the latest figures Tuesday in its World Malaria Report 2010.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The annual number of malaria cases dropped slightly over the last decade, from 233 million to 225 million.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The report attributed the declines to disease prevention and control measures.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Although malaria is preventable and curable, the WHO says a child dies of the disease in <st1:place w:st="on">Africa</st1:place> every 45 seconds, accounting for nearly 20 percent of all childhood deaths.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">Malaria is caused by parasites that are transmitted to people by infected mosquitoes.<span>  </span><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
</div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><span style="font-family: "Trebuchet MS";">The disease initially causes mild symptoms including fever, headache, chills and vomiting.<span>  </span>If not treated within 24 hours, it can cause more severe symptoms such as severe anemia and respiratory distress, which may lead to death. ---VOA News<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: justify;"><br />
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WHO: Malaria Deaths Drop 20 Percent Since 2000

The World Health Organization reports that deaths from malaria around the world have dropped more than 20 percent since 2000. The U.N. ag...