Posted on

Text Messages Advance Malaria Care

Text messages could be a cost effective way of improving care for African children with malaria, according to researchers.

A six month study involving 119 health workers in Kenya, published by The Lancet, showed texts increased the number following government guidelines.

Half of children received the correct treatment at the end of the study, more than double the starting figure.

Researchers said there was “huge potential” to improve care.

There has been concern that government guidelines on malaria treatments are not always followed in the field.

Guidelines include the correct prescription of anti-malaria drugs – artemether-lumefantrine (AL) – and advice to parents.

Health workers in the study were sent text messages twice a day, five days a week, for six months.

An example of the sort of sent was: “advise mother to finish all AL doses over three days even if the child feels better after two doses”.

Improvement

At the beginning of the study, 20.5% of children were correctly managed, this increased to 49.6% after the six month study.

Continue reading the main story

“Start Quote

We need to explore ways of scaling up such intervention to all health workers in the country”

End Quote Dr Willis Akhwale Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation

The effect appeared to persist after the texts stopped. Six months after the trial ended, 51.4% of children were receiving the correct treatment.

Professor Bob Snow, who headed the research group, said: “The role of the mobile phone in improving health providers’ performance, health service management and patient adherence to new medicines across much of Africa has a huge potential.”

The cost of the texts was estimated at £1.59 for the whole six months for each worker.

However, the authors acknowledge that “we do not fully understand why the intervention was successful”.

They suspect it may act as a reminder or reinforce the importance of the messages in the texts.

Dr Willis Akhwale, from the Kenyan Ministry of Public Health and Sanitation, said: “We need to explore ways of scaling up such intervention to all health workers in the country.”

Bruno Moonen and Justin Cohen, from the Clinton Health Access Initiative in Nairobi, said: “A combination of interventions will most likely be needed to improve adherence to national guidelines.”

The study provides “strong evidence that text message reminders can be an effective, low-cost component of such a package”.

Share
Posted on

Sports Men and Women Urged to Become Malaria Ambassadors

Accra, July 25, GNA – The Country Director of the John Hopkins University Center for Communication Programs (JHU/CCP) Voices, Mr Emmanuel Fiagbey, has called on sports men and women as well as their technical handlers to remain ambassadors in the fight against the malaria disease.

Mr Fiagbey charged them to continue to behave as role models in their communities by ensuring that families make maximum use of their treated mosquito nets and discourage the people from using any other medicine apart from ACTs in treating malaria when they fall sick of the disease.

The Country Director of JHU/CCP0 Voices for a Malaria-free Future Project under its flagship program, ‘United Against Malaria’, and in collaboration with the National Malaria Control Program and other partners said this at the presentation of special commemorative certificates and ‘T’ shirts to the National Sports Authority in Accra.

The over 600 ‘T’ shirts, which also carry messages on malaria prevention will be presented to all the 4,942 participants and their officials at the on-going National Unity Games made up of the teams of Football, Volleyball, Table tennis, Handball, Netball, Basketball, and the winners of the first, second and third positions in all the athletics events.

The Certificates which were signed by the Director of the National Sports Authority, Mr Worlanyo Agra carry the messages: “Be a member of the Winning Team- Sleep in treated mosquito nets every night; Take only ACTs any time you have malaria; Encourage pregnant women in your house to seek Antenatal care on time; and Keep Ghana Malaria-free for the next games.”

Mr Agra in receiving the items commended the growing partnership between the Malaria program and the National Sports Authority.

“We would remain active members of the ‘United Against Malaria’ partnership and continue to ensure that sporting activities at all levels, national, regional, district and at the community levels are used as grounds for educating our people on malaria prevention and correct treatment of the disease.

“Whether you are a sports man or woman or not, mosquitoes do not know the difference and the malaria parasite they carry can kill any one of us any time if we fail to sleep in our nets or take the correct medicines”, he emphasized.

GNA

Share
Posted on

‘Dirty sock smell’ Lures Mosquitoes to a Sticky End

Researchers in Tanzania have chemically reproduced the stench of smelly feet in an innovative new approach to combat the spread of malaria in the country.

The scientific team at Tanzania’s Ifakara Health Institute has developed a potent serum — similar to that of human foot odor — to lure and kill mosquitoes, which can carry malaria and other diseases.

Four times more powerful in attracting mosquitoes than natural human odor, the synthetic smell is now being used in a pioneering research program aimed at killing mosquitoes outdoors using a “mosquito landing box.”

“The goal is to eliminate malaria,” said scientific researcher, Fredros Okumu, who is developing the technology. “We are going to do this by tackling the transmission of disease outside the house.”

Mosquitoes are lured inside the boxes by the synthetic odor, which is dispersed by a solar-powered fan. Once inside, the insects are either trapped or poisoned and left to die.

“We know mosquitoes don’t see people, they smell them.” Okumu said.

“Substances we omit when we sweat, such as lactic acid, act as a signal to mosquitoes … The aim here was to produce a mixture that would mimic a human being.”

The result, said Okumu, was a chemical blend that “smelt just like dirty socks.”

“If you came to our lab when the research was being done, you would have thought that someone had just come off a soccer field,” he admitted.

Okumu, who is currently completing a PhD from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, in England, plans to develop the mosquito landing boxes over the next two years, thanks to a $775,000 joint grant from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and the not-for profit organization Grand Challenges Canada.

“This is a great example of an African innovator, with an African innovation, tackling an African problem,” said Dr Peter Singer, CEO of Grand Challenges Canada.

“Malaria kills about 800,000 people a year, mostly children, in Africa. At the moment existing technologies, such as bed nets and sprays, tend to repel mosquitoes inside the home.

“This technology attracts mosquitoes outside the home to kill them, and could be complimentary to what is there now,” Singer continued.

Working closely with villagers in remote communities where malaria is endemic, Okumu is aiming to produce a practical and sustainable technology that will be easy to run and operate.

Okumu is keen to explore further cost-saving measures in order cement the mosquito boxes as part of everyday Tanzanian life. Ideas include using the boxes’ solar-panel technology to supply energy to people’s homes and substituting the costly chemical mosquito lure with actual foot odor collected from specially designed cotton pads placed in people’s socks.

“We hope at the end of the two years we will be able to tell the world this is a good strategy to use and start involving industry and more communities and villages,” said Okumu.

The prevalence of malaria in Tanzania has decreased in the last 10 years and Okumu has seen rates in his region dramatically decline from 40% in 1997 to around 7% today.

“We are sure that the reduced rates are due to the improved delivery of bed nets, drugs, insecticides and living standards,” said Okumu. “But malaria is not going to disappear using these existing methods.”

Okumu says he hopes to see his boxes used across the region before existing methods become less effective.

“Mosquitoes can modify their behavior quite rapidly to deal with the added deterrents of sprays and bed nets,” he said.

“For example, instead of going into houses to bite people, mosquitoes are now starting to wait to bite people outside,” he said.

For Okumu, this is a personal as well as a scientific venture. Born in western Kenya, malaria has been apart of Okumu’s life for as long as he can remember.

“All the places I have lived have been malaria zones. When I was growing up I had malaria at least twice every year,” he said.

He continued: “Malaria has claimed so many lives and diseases like this are one of the biggest blocks to our social and economic development.”

CNN

Share
Posted on

Drogba Takes Malaria Fight to Native Africa

(Reuters) – After six years braving England’s frigid winters, a tropical disease was the last thing Chelsea’s injury-prone striker Didier Drogba thought would keep him on the sidelines of the Premier League.

Since contracting malaria last year, Drogba’s fight against the disease has gone from the Chelsea treatment room to the wilds of West Africa, where he is building a hospital and providing thousands of mosquito nets in an effort to cut the infection rate of one of the world’s biggest killers.

There are 225 million cases a year of malaria, a mosquito-borne disease which can damage the nervous system, kidneys and liver. There were 781,000 deaths due to malaria in 2009, nine out of 10 were in Africa, according to the World Health Organization.

“I had malaria, I know exactly what it feels like and it’s something that I want to stop,” Drogba told Reuters on Saturday, handing out hundreds of nets bearing his face to a foundation in Thailand during Chelsea’s Asian tour.

“That’s why we’re giving these nets to kids and people who can’t afford treatment. These are good options, they’re efficient and they save lives.”

Drogba has been active in his native Ivory Coast in raising funds and donating his own sponsorship earnings to building a hospital in the capital Abidjan worth more than $4 million.

The 32-year-old fell ill with malaria in September but continued playing, a decision he said was foolish in retrospect and delayed his recovery.

DANGEROUS MOVE

The towering forward still does not know where he picked up the illness, which the club did not reveal until two months later.

“It was very dangerous and cost me fitness for almost two months,” he said. “But I kept playing, I wanted to help my team, but I really should not have.”

Drogba’s hospital project has been delayed due to a four-month conflict in Ivory Coast that killed thousands of people following an election intended to unite the former French colony that plunged it back into civil war.

The country is now in recovery following April’s ouster by French-backed rebels of former President Laurent Gbagbo, who had refused to cede power. Drogba said he would return to his homeland in the next few weeks to get his hospital project started.

“The situation in Ivory Coast has meant it’s difficult for people to receive treatment, but the country is trying to survive, slowly things should get back to normal,” Drogba said.

“I want this money to go to the right place, to try to help my people and give back to them what they gave to me.

“They’ve always been supporting me, so I really want to help them.”

By Martin Petty
BANGKOK
Share
Posted on

Is There Hope for The African Child?

The theme for this year African Child’s Day, was ‘All Together For Actions in Favor of Street Children’. This was targeted at some estimated 30million African street children and was celebrated all over the African continent. June 6 of every year is set aside by the African Union (AU) to commemorate the wanton massacre of some children in the street of Soweto, during the black days of Apartheid in South Africa on June 6, 1976. They were gruesomely murdered because they came out to demonstrate against the authority in order for them to be taught in their local language in their school. Thirty-four years on, the remembrance still continue, which goes to show the crucial nature of the day for Africa as a continent.

Across the length and breadth of the continent, Continue reading “Is There Hope for The African Child?”

Share
Posted on

Drug Firms Cut Vaccine Prices to the Developing World

Several major drugs companies have announced big cuts to the amounts they charge for their vaccines in the developing world.

GlaxoSmithKline (GSK), Merck, Johnson & Johnson and Sanofi-Aventis have agreed to cut prices through the international vaccine alliance Gavi.

GSK said it would cut the price of its vaccine for rotavirus by 67% to $2.50 (£1.50) a dose in poor countries.

Rotavirus-related diarrhoea kills more than 500,000 children a year.

The vaccine will be subsidised by higher prices being charged in richer countries.

The rotavirus vaccine, for example, would cost about $50 in the US.

‘Helped out’

“What we need is a return to invest in the next generation of new vaccines and drugs and that has to come from the profits of the medicines or the vaccines,” Andrew Witty, chief executive of GSK told the BBC.

“But it’s obvious that if you’re in Kenya or a slum in Malawi or somewhere like that there is no capacity for those people to contribute to it, so they have to be helped out by the contribution from the middle and the richer (countries).”

Gavi is a partnership representing public and private sector organisations that helps to fund mass vaccination programmes in developing countries.

It is committed to funding the introduction of rotavirus vaccinations in 40% of the poorest countries by 2015, but it faced a $3.7bn funding shortfall and so has been appealing for price cuts and donations.

It will be holding a pledging conference in London on 13 June.

Anti-poverty campaigners welcomed the move but also called on world leaders to act.

“The pricing commitments announced today help drive momentum, but Gavi’s ambition to save four million lives in the next five years is only achievable if the international donor community steps up to the plate on 13 June,” said Jamie Drummond, executive director of campaign group ONE.

Malaria vaccine

Merck has said it will provide its own rotavirus vaccine for $5 a dose, coming down to $3.50 once more than 30 million doses have been sold.

The price Gavi pays for pentavalent vaccines, which protect against diphtheria, tetanus, pertussis, hepatitis B and Haemophilus influenzae type B will be cut by two Indian firms, Serum Institute and Panacea Biotec.

GSK also said it was very close to developing the world’s first malaria vaccine, which is unusual because there is no market for it in the West.

That means there is no opportunity for patients in richer countries to subsidise those in poorer countries.

As a result, GSK said that if the vaccine comes to market it would be sold at a price that provides a small return of 5%, which would be used to fund the next generation of malaria treatments.

Save the Children called on other companies to replicate the “landmark move” which it said could prevent hundreds of thousands of “needless deaths”.

“It’s important that Gavi now uses this to spur other vaccine producers to reduce prices and work to foster greater competition amongst producers to drive prices down even further and help even more children,” said chief executive Justin Forsyth.

Share
Posted on

Newly Identified Chemicals Fool Mosquitoes

Researchers have identified a low-cost chemical that interferes with a mosquito’s ability to detect humans, a study which offers a striking breakthrough in the battle against malaria.

Mosquitoes have carbon dioxide sensors with which they are able to smell the presence of humans in their neighborhood. The newly identified chemicals consist of odor molecules that disrupt these carbon-dioxide sensors located in small, antennae-like appendages close to the mosquito’s mouth, thereby disrupting the mechanism that alert mosquitoes to exhaled human breath. The study is presented in the journal Nature.

It is hoped that the findings could help develop the next generation of mosquito repellents, which could work by confusing the insects.

DEET are the gold standard insect repellants but they are costly and requires repeat applications and therefore beyond the means of many in the developing countries. This discovery could prove invaluable to poor tropical countries by providing an alternative to DEET.

According to the World Health Organization, malaria kills between 800,000 to 1 million people each year, most of who are in Sub-Saharan African. Children and pregnant mothers are the most vulnerable.

Share
Posted on

Mosquitoes are Suckered in New Malaria Research

(AFP) –

PARIS — In the biggest lab breakthrough against malaria in years, scientists on Wednesday said they had identified odour molecules that baffle blood-thirsty mosquitoes.

The molecules disrupt carbon-dioxide sensors that alert mosquitoes to exhaled breath, which signals the presence of a human nearby, the team reported.

The work could lead to revolutionary but low-cost chemicals to confuse, deter or trap mosquitoes, it said.

They could be invaluable in poor tropical countries, providing an alternative to DEET, a skin repellent that is expensive, needs repeat applications and is showing worrying signs of resistance.

“These chemicals offer powerful advantages as potential tools for reducing mosquito-human contact and can lead to the development of new generations of insect repellents and lures,” said Anandasankar Ray, an assistant professor of entomology at the University of California at Riverside, who led the study.

Traps for mosquitoes already exist, in the form of dry ice, gas cylinders of carbon dioxide or propane combustion.

But these gadgets are too bulky and far too expensive to be used for mosquito control, especially in poor settings.

Future mosquito traps, Ray predicted, could be “highly portable, convenient and easily replenishable.”

Malaria claimed 781,000 lives in 2009, according to the UN’s World Health Organisation (WHO), which is heading efforts to distribute insecticide-treated mosquito nets and to spray reproduction sites.

About 90 percent of malaria deaths each year occur in Africa and 92 percent of those are children aged under five.

Other mosquito-borne diseases are dengue, which sickens around 50 million people each year, yellow fever, filariasis and West Nile virus.

Building on research on fruitflies, a common laboratory tool, Ray’s team looked at three of mosquito species whose females are disease vectors: Anopheles gambiae, Aedes aegypti and Culex quinquefasciatus.

The odour molecules that they identified disrupt receptor cells for carbon dioxide located in tiny, antennae-like appendages close to the mosquito’s mouth.

These receptors are activated by a whiff of carbon dioxide, triggering a signal in the brain that prompts the insect to fly upwind, following the puffs of CO2 until they reach its source. Mosquito also use heat sensors and sight to home in on their meal.

The findings have been tested in a small-scale experiment in Kenya, using huts where alluring plumes of CO2 were released to attract mosquitoes and odour molecules were released to bamboozle them.

Mark Stopfer, a specialist at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), said the results opened up “a promising line of defence.”

He added some words of caution, saying that mosquitoes were attracted to other odours in human sweat and skin. In addition, the chemicals that have been tested on insects so far have not yet been tested for safety on humans, he noted.

Share