Infant and child mortality in relation to malaria transmission in KEMRI/CDC HDSS, Western Kenya: validation of verbal autopsy (Publications)
(VA) is widely used for estimating malaria specific mortality rates, but does not reliably distinguish malaria from other febrile illnesses. Overall malaria attributable mortality includes both direct and [...] both all-cause and malaria-specific mortality. 48.2% of the deaths could be attributed to malaria by analysing the exposure-response relationship, though only 20.5% of VAs assigned malaria as the cause and [...] BACKGROUND: Malaria transmission reduction is a goal of many malaria control...
Global action for training in malaria elimination [Commentary] (Publications)
The Rethinking Malaria Leadership Forum, held at Harvard Business School in February 2017 with collaboration of the Barcelona Institute for Global Health and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute [...] training gap as a high priority for both analysis and action. The gap in human resource training for malaria elimination needs to be addressed in order to assure continued progress. This paper identifies major [...] assist in filling the training gaps, and proposes global actions to...
Human migration and the spread of malaria parasites to the New World (Publications)
We examined the mitogenomes of a large global collection of human malaria parasites to explore how and when Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax entered the Americas. We found evidence of a significant [...] contribution of African and South Asian lineages to present-day New World malaria parasites with additional P. vivax lineages appearing to originate from Melanesia that were putatively carried by the
Converging human and malaria vector diagnostics with data management towards an integrated holistic One Health approach (Publications)
Monitoring malaria prevalence in humans, as well as vector populations, for the presence of Plasmodium, is an integral component of effective malaria control, and eventually, elimination. In the field [...] precisely, the causative agent of fever, thereby differentiating among several candidate (also non-malaria) febrile diseases. This requires genetic-based pathogen identification and multiplexed analysis,
The underlying reasons for very high levels of bed net use, and higher malaria infection prevalence among bed net users than non-users in the... (Publications)
even suppress entire populations of malaria vectors that feed predominantly upon humans. Nevertheless, an epidemiological study in 2012 demonstrated higher malaria prevalence among bed net users than non-users [...] against malaria. Houses with well-screened windows, with doors that shut properly, and that use insecticidal sprays against mosquitoes, were said not to use bed nets, while frequent attacks from malaria was [...] compromise its effectiveness and supposedly increase of malaria...
Multiple insecticide resistance in <em>Anopheles gambiae</em> from Tanzania: a major concern for malaria vector control (Publications)
development of insecticide resistance in the major malaria vectors. This study was carried out to monitor the susceptibility status of major malaria vectors to insecticides used for IRS and LLINs in mainland [...] BACKGROUND: Malaria vector control in Tanzania is based on use of long-lasting insecticide treated nets (LLINs) and indoor residual spraying (IRS), which both rely on the use of chemical insecticides. [...] An. gambiae sensu stricto (s.s.) Kisumu strain. RESULTS: Anopheles arabiensis...
Lysophosphatidylcholine regulates sexual stage differentiation in the human malaria parasite <em>Plasmodium falciparum</em> (Publications)
bottleneck in the Plasmodium life cycle and a key intervention target of ongoing efforts to eradicate malaria. Sexual differentiation is essential for this process, as only sexual parasites, called gametocytes [...] activation of sexual-stage-specific transcription and gametocyte formation. Our results reveal that malaria parasites can sense and process host-derived physiological signals to regulate differentiation. These [...] of the sexual differentiation pathway in Plasmodium that may provide...
Longitudinal estimation of <em>Plasmodium falciparum </em>prevalence in relation to malaria prevention measures in six sub-Saharan African countries (Publications)
(PfPR) is a widely used metric for assessing malaria transmission intensity. This study was carried out concurrently with the RTS,S/AS01 candidate malaria vaccine Phase III trial and estimated PfPR over [...] 3 sites. Surveys were usually performed during the peak malaria parasite transmission season, in one home visit, when medical history and malaria risk factors/prevention measures were collected, and a blood [...] 0.52, 0.68, 0.41) and bed net use in 2 surveys (ORs: 0.63, 0.68, 1.03, 1.78)...