Sexual differentiation of the malaria parasite is a pre-requisite for transmission from humans to the mosquito vector and has emerged as a target for intervention in eradication efforts. In this issue of Cell, a study from Marti, Clardy, and colleagues (Brancucci et al., 2017) describes a host-derived lipid lysophosphatidylcholine (LysoPC) that regulates sexual commitment.

Let alone the eradication, malaria control itself has amounted to be a challenge, and is detrimental to the all round development of the northeastern region of India. Focal outbreaks are frequent taking heavy tool on human lives. Plasmodium falciparum is the predominant parasite species and is solely responsible for increased morbidity and mortality. The region contributes bulk of P. falciparum...

There have been constant changes in the biology and behavior of the vector and parasite involved in the transmission of malaria. There is limited interest in developing new technologies and procedures for controlling the underlying factors of this threat, which poses an enormous challenge to health systems. To understand the various vector species and their interrelations is of prime importance...

This article describes three periods in Brazil’s modern history when governmental action was (or was not) taken against smallpox: first, when smallpox control became a priority in the Brazilian sanitary agenda from the nineteenth century to the beginning of the twentieth century; second, when it was rendered politically invisible during decades when greater attention was given to yellow fever a...

It is part of a suite of agent-based microsimulations developed at Intellectual Ventures Laboratory, which also includes malaria [1], polio, and tuberculosis. The models and their accompanying software infrastructure are designed for disease modelers, researchers, epidemiologists, and public health professionals seeking to simulate infectious disease conditions and evaluate the effectiveness of...

BACKGROUND The burden of malaria is a key challenge to both human and economic development in malaria endemic countries. The impact of malaria can be categorized from three dimensions, namely: health, social and economic. The objective of this study was to estimate the impact of malaria morbidity on gross domestic product (GDP) of Uganda. METHODS The impact of malaria morbidity on GDP of Ugan...

We derive and analyse a deterministic model for the transmission of malaria disease with drug resistance in the infectives. Firstly, we calculate the basic reproduction number, R, and investigate the existence and stability of equilibria. The system is found to exhibit backward bifurcation, with this occurrence, the classical epidemiological requirement for effective eradication of malaria, R <...

Efforts to move from malaria control to eradication will require new approaches to block malaria transmission, such as the development of anti-malarial drugs with gametocytocidal activity. Here fluorescent oxidoreduction indicator alamarBlue is used to develop a screen for gametocyte viability. The fluorescent signal increases linearly with gametocyte number (R(2)=0.99) and determination of the...

Background International and domestic funding for malaria is critically important to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals. Its equitable distribution is key in ensuring that the available, scarce, resources are deployed efficiently for improved progress and a sustained response that enables eradication. Methods We used concentration curves and concentration indices to assess inequalities...

M ALARIA IS ONE of the major parasitic diseases affecting humans today, contributing greatly to the high mortality rates in the developing world. The original epidemiologic concept of “malaria eradication” for large endemic areas, introduced by the World Health Organization (WHO) in the 1960s, has now been replaced by the concept of “control,” given the increase in the morbidity and mortality r...