Wüstenschiff

Malaria - Jetzt schlagen die Moskitos mit aller Macht zurück

Alarm bei den Tropenmedizinern: Der aus China stammende Wirkstoff Artemisinin wurde bisher als wahres Wundermittel im Kampf gegen Malaria gefeiert. Doch in Kambodscha gibt es nun die ersten Resistenzen. Die Wunderdroge könnte bald vollkommen nutzlos werden, wenn es nicht gelingt, die kleine resistente Nische einzugrenzen. mehr...

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Alexander

In Brief: GPS and malaria
DAKAR, 1 April 2009 (IRIN) - Malaria control has long depended on incomplete infection mapping or “spatial medical intelligence”. But in recent years the Malaria Atlas Project (MAP) has used GPS (Global Positioning System) to plot malaria infections based on community surveys in 84 endemic countries..

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Quelle:irinnews.org

Bislang genaueste Malaria-Karten vorgestellt

Karten zu einzelnen Ländern online zugänglich / Hohe regionale Auflösung

Ein internationales Forscherteam hat die bislang detailliertesten Karten zum Malariarisiko online gestellt. Ärzte aber auch Reisende können Daten und Karten zum Infektionsrisiko in sämtlichen tropischen Ländern einzeln herunterladen. Die Karten mit einer Auflösung von 25 km2 werden jährlich aktualisiert. mehr...

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Alexander

Einzeller mit tausend Gesichtern - Kampf gegen die Malaria

Der Malaria-Erreger ist äußerst widerstandsfähig. Neue Waffen sollen ihn besiegen. Vorerst schützen spezielle Moskitonetze am effektivsten. mehr...

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Alexander

Neue Initiative für erschwingliche Malariamittel

Eine internationale Initiative will Medikamente gegen Malaria für Menschen in elf besonders gefährdeten Ländern erschwinglich machen. Die von Moskitos übertragene Krankheit tötet täglich 2000 Kinder. mehr...

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Alexander

Malaria deaths decline by 66% in Zambia
23.04.2009 - WHO

GENEVA/BRAZZAVILLE -- Malaria deaths reported from health facilities in Zambia have declined by 66%. This result along with other supporting data indicates that Zambia has reached the 2010 Roll Back Malaria target of a more than 50% reduction in malaria mortality compared to 2000. On World Malaria Day, celebrated on 25 April, Zambia's efforts will be promoted as a model for other countries to follow. Rwanda, United Republic of Tanzania, and Sao Tome and Principe are the other African countries who have achieved major reductions in malaria mortality through accelerated malaria control activities.

The decline in Zambia was especially steep after 3.6 million long-lasting insecticidal nets were distributed between 2006 and 2008. During this period malaria deaths declined 47% and nationwide surveys showed parasite prevalence declined 53% from 21.8% to 10.2% and the percentage of children with severe anaemia declined 68% from 13.3% to 4.3%. Most moderate and severe anaemia in children is caused by malaria.

"This is a remarkable achievement and a tribute to the hard work and commitment of the Ministry of Health of Zambia and its partners to combat malaria," said Dr Luís Gomes Sambo, WHO Regional Director for Africa. "As we celebrate World Malaria Day this week, I urge all countries affected by malaria to intensify and sustain malaria control and elimination efforts in order to meet the 2010 goal of 100% coverage."

WHO, with the support of the Global Fund to fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, has been collaborating with health ministries over the last two years to evaluate impact from accelerated malaria control activities.
Malaria control activities accelerated

Accelerated malaria control activities started in Zambia in 2003 when approximately 500 000 insecticide-treated nets were distributed and artemisinin-based combination therapy (ACT) started in seven pilot districts through a grant from the Global Fund.

Since then, the Ministry of Health of Zambia has further expanded malaria control activities with grants worth US$ 120 million from the Global Fund and support from partners including the President's Malaria Initiative (PMI), the Malaria Control and Evaluation Partnership in Africa (MACEPA) and the World Bank Booster Program for Malaria Control in Africa.

“The Global Fund is pleased to see proof that malaria control resources provided by the Ministry of Health, the Global Fund, and other partners are resulting in a dramatic reduction of preventable deaths,” said Dr Michel Kazatchkine, Executive Director of the Global Fund, which provides two thirds of all resources for malaria control worldwide. “Zambia stands as an example of what we can achieve throughout Africa through the combination of universal access to bednets and effective malaria medicines,” he said.
Increasing coverage

By 2006-2007, large amounts of insecticide-treated nets and ACT were distributed and indoor residual spraying was taking place in 15 of 72 districts in Zambia. During 2006 and 2007 insecticide-treated nets were distributed to the general population rather than only children and pregnant women, who were the primary beneficiaries in earlier campaigns.

Mr Kapembwa Simbao, Minister of Health for Zambia said the Government of Zambia is committed to increasing coverage of key malaria control interventions and reducing the burden of malaria throughout the country.

"We will endeavour to continue to build on progress made and ensure that malaria control is addressed as part of a health systems strengthening effort to ensure that ACTs will reach all persons with suspected malaria thereby ensuring universal coverage," he said.

In countries with moderate and low transmission malaria, it appears that the Roll Back Malaria target of a more than 75% reduction is within reach several years before 2015. Aggressive malaria control measures as in Zambia may enable African countries to make rapid progress towards the Millennium Development Goals target of reducing child mortality by two thirds by 2015.

IRIN hat geschrieben:SENEGAL: Fines to fight malaria

DAKAR, 24 April 2009 (IRIN) - In the Senegalese district of Khombole, the number of people stricken by malaria has dropped by 98 percent in the past decade. While government-subsidised US$2 long-lasting mosquito nets and new medications have helped reduce malaria infections, house visits throughout the district's 60 villages have also made a difference, according to a local malaria control association.

"It is not enough just to give someone a net," said El Hadj Diop, the president of an association to fight malaria in Thienaba, one of Khombole's villages located 80km north of Dakar. He said volunteers make unannounced house visits after net distribution.

"We take hanging nets up seriously. If someone has not hung up their nets, we charge them $1." He said since fines were levied in 2006, only six people have had to pay. "It is considered a shame to not have a net hung. No one has had to pay for awhile now."

In 2008 Khombole reported 57 malaria infections versus 3,542 infections nine years ago, according to district medical records.

Net use increases typically by 10 to 23 percent when house visits are conducted after net distribution, according to the US-based Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, based on studies in Togo, Niger, Sierra Leone and Madagascar.

Since 2004 there have been no reports of malaria deaths, according to Diop. "I could not even tell you how many deaths we had a decade ago. More than I could count. I lost my 12-year-old daughter."

He told IRIN his daughter came home from school feeling ill and after two days died at home.

Diop told IRIN after 60 villages established committees to enforce net use, sent volunteers to give health talks and began setting up loan circles in 2001 to buy nets and malaria medication for families who could not afford them, malaria deaths have "faded to the past".

Nationwide, while 60 percent of households had received nets only half of the nets were in use, according to a December 2008 survey. This rate depends on the season, the country's National Malaria Control Programme deputy director Mame Birame Diouf, told IRIN. "More people use the nets during the rainy [malaria] season, which ends in October for us." The goal is to reach 80-percent use, said Diouf.

If nets are given without instructions that priority should go to women and under-five children - who are most vulnerable to malaria infections - men may sleep under a family's only net, leaving children to sleep uncovered in kitchens and common areas, according to researchers at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine.

Quelle: http://www.irinnews.org

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Alexander

Kleiner Stich, tödliche Wirkung
Welt-Malariatag: Impfstudie macht Hoffnung

Malaria ist weltweit einer der größten Killer: Alle 30 Sekungen stirbt ein Kind an der Krankheit, jedes Jahr tötet das Tropenfieber fast eine Million Menschen. Eine Schutzimpfung gibt es bislang nicht. Hoffnung macht nun eine Impfstudie. mehr...

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Alexander

«Es gibt bald wieder Malaria in Europa»

Zum heutigen Welt-Malaria-Tag spricht ein Insektenspezialist über moderne Methoden bei der Malariabekämpfung,
stinkende Socken und Mundgeruch.

Könnte man sich auch mit frisch gewaschenen Socken vor Stichen schützen?
Das haben wir noch nicht getestet. Fest steht, dass alte, stinkende Socken dagegen sehr gute Fallen für Anopheles-Mücken sind. Mit solchen Ködern können wir die Fangquoten im Nu drastisch erhöhen.

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Alexander

Fortschritt im Malaria-Kampf

UNICEF-Aufruf: Noch mehr Prävention nötig, um die Krankheit auszurotten
Windhoek/Washington – Der Kampf gegen Malaria, vor allem in Afrika, zeigt Fortschritte. Aber es muss noch viel mehr bezüglich Prävention getan werden. Dies ist das Fazit und die Forderung eines neuen Berichtes zu Kindern und Malaria, den das Windhoeker Büro des Kinderhilfswerks der Vereinten Nationen (UNICEF) am Welt-Malaria-Tag (25. April) vorgestellt hat. mehr...

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Alexander

Artesunatzäpfchen als wirksame Soforthilfe
04.05.2009 - Apotheker Zeitung

Erhalten Kinder mit akuter Malaria in entlegenen Gebieten Afrikas oder Asiens als Soforthilfe Artesunatzäpfchen, sinkt die malariabedingte Sterblichkeit, wenn die Kinder auch nach mehr als sechs Stunden noch nicht in einem Krankenhaus behandelt werden konnten. Dieses Ergebnis einer großen randomisierten multizentrischen Studie, die von der Weltgesundheitsorganisation (WHO) durchgeführt wurde, könnte die Behandlung der Malaria entscheidend beeinflussen ... mehr

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Birgitt

Insekten sollen nicht mehr mit DDT bekämpft werden dürfen
08.05.2009 - SonntagsZeitung

Die Vertragsstaaten der Stockholmer Konvention haben sich an der Chemikalien-Konferenz in Genf auf die weltweite Eliminierung von DDT geeinigt. Im Kampf gegen die Malaria soll das Insektizid bis spätestens 2020 durch umweltfreundliche Methoden ersetzt werden ... mehr

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Birgitt

Ökologischer Feldzug gegen die Malaria
08.05.2009 - tagesanzeiger.ch

Mückenlarven abzutöten, ist eine wirksame Methode, um Malaria in afrikanischen Städten zu bekämpfen. Wie sich diese Herkulesaufgabe bewältigen lässt, zeigt ein Besuch vor Ort ... mehr

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Birgitt

Malaria parasites 'resist drugs'
29.05.2009 - BBC

International scientists say they have found the first evidence of resistance to the world's most effective drug for treating malaria. They say the trend in western Cambodia has to be urgently contained because full-blown resistance would be a global health catastrophe. Drugs are taking longer to clear blood of malaria parasites than before. This is an early warning sign of emerging resistance to a disease which kills a million people every year. Until now the most effective drug cleared all malaria parasites from the blood within two or three days but in recent trials this took up to four or five days ... mehr
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Malaria-Parasiten sind resistent gegen Medikamente
29.05.2009 - Basler Zeitung

Wissenschaftler aus verschiedenen Ländern haben laut eigenen Angaben die ersten Beweise dafür gefunden, dass eine Resistenz gegen das weltweit wirksamste Medikament gegen Malaria entsteht ... mehr


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Birgitt

METHYLENBLAU - Ein Farbstoff hilft gegen Malaria

Neue Erkenntnisse bestätigen die Wirksamkeit des alten Heilmittels.

Das Pulver ist dunkelgrün, schmeckt sehr bitter, färbt den Urin blau und kann bei zu hoher Dosierung sogar das Weiße im Auge verfärben. Aber: Es hilft gegen Malaria. „Methylenblau“ heißt ein synthetischer Farbstoff, der schon dem 1854 geborenen Medizinnobelpreisträger Paul Ehrlich bekannt war. Über Jahrzehnte war er jedoch unter anderem wegen seiner farbigen Nebenwirkungen von anderen Malariamitteln verdrängt worden. mehr...

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Alexander