Safeguarding the malaria endgame in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic

OUCRU scientists identify combination of biological markers associated with severe dengue

22 June 2021

Nguyen Lam Vuong, Sophie Yacoub & colleagues have identified a combination of biological markers in patients with dengue that could predict whether they go on to develop moderate to severe disease. Biomarkers are used to identify the state or risk of a disease in patients; these findings could aid the development of biomarker panels for clinical use and help improve triage and risk prediction in patients with dengue.

Latest data on immune response to COVID-19 reinforces need for vaccination, says Oxford-led study

20 June 2021

A new study led by the University of Oxford has found that previous infection, whether symptomatic or asymptomatic, does not necessarily protect you long-term from COVID-19, particularly against new Variants of Concern.

Researchers call for access to Ivermectin for young children

19 March 2021

Millions of children weighing less than 15kg are currently denied access to Ivermectin treatment due to insufficient safety data being available to support a change to the current label indication. The WorldWide Antimalarial Resistance Network’s new meta-analysis provides evidence that supports removing this barrier and improving treatment equity.

Evidence supports WHO recommendation for primaquine combined with ACTs to block Plasmodium falciparum transmission

12 February 2021

Evidence from a new study, initiated by the Primaquine Roll Out Group and conducted at WWARN, supports the World Health Organization (WHO) recommendation for use of 0.25mg/kg dose of primaquine (PQ) combined with artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT) to block Plasmodium falciparum transmission.

Check-list recommended to improve reporting of microscopy methods and results in malaria studies

13 January 2021

A study to explore the variations of how microscopy methods are reported in published malaria studies has recommended standardised procedures should be implemented for methodological consistency and comparability of clinical trial outcomes.

Restoring confidence in science – tinkering in the margin is not enough

4 December 2020

Blog by Piero Olliaro, Josephine Bourner and Lakshmi Manoharan. The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted the limits of the current peer-review model, which is collapsing under the number of articles and volume of information, unable to cope with the conflicting needs for speed and quality of information. The peer review process is often slow, opaque, unaccountable and biased; it is now time to focus on tangible improvements, making transparency our top priority. We need a system reset, not tinkering in the margin.

New study on the risk of Plasmodium vivax parasitaemia after Plasmodium falciparum malaria

1 December 2020

A new study quantifying the high risk of Plasmodium vivax parasitaemia after treatment of Plasmodium falciparum malaria aims to identify populations in which a policy of universal radical cure, combining artemisinin-based combination therapy with a hypnozoitocidal antimalarial drug, would be most beneficial.

Large scale systematic review details causes of non-malarial febrile illnesses globally and identifies research priorities

21 September 2020

A series of articles that set out to explore the global distribution of infections that cause non-malarial febrile illness has been published in BMC Medicine. The series brings together the results of large-scale systematic reviews of the causes of fever in Africa, Latin America, and Southern and South-Eastern Asia, and has helped identify major knowledge gaps, geographical differences, priority areas for diagnostics research and development, and enabled the most comprehensive systematic review of literature to date.

Microscopy standards to harmonise methods for malaria clinical research studies

10 September 2020

Research Malaria Microscopy Standards (ReMMS) applicable to malaria clinical research studies have been published in Malaria Journal. The paper describes the rationale for proposed standards to prepare, stain and examine blood films for malaria parasites.

New global COVID-19 long term study launched

9 September 2020

ISARIC has launched a longitudinal observational study to measure prevalence and risk factors of long-term health and psychosocial consequences of COVID-19. The researchers are inviting hospitals and healthcare sites worldwide to join this new study. The patient survey has been designed to assess long-term health and psychosocial consequences of COVID-19 at serial intervals for up to three to five years, depending on resources.

Drug-resistant enteric fever, antibiotics and the need for clean water

5 August 2020

Blog by Professor Christiane Dolecek. Antimicrobial resistance is a critical problem in enteric fever. Drug-resistant infections can have severe consequences, and slowing their spread requires our urgent attention. The most important intervention is to reduce the number of infections; vaccines are a critical tool, alongside surveillance and diagnosis. To achieve this control, strong partnerships between WHO, governments, NGOs, academia, private sector and communities are needed.

Local lockdowns can be successful – here’s what we need to make them work

5 August 2020

Over the past few weeks, the UK government has gradually eased national lockdown measures. As the economy reopens, the number of contacts an individual has with other people inevitably increases. Since then, there has been an increase in COVID-19 cases, as well as spikes in transmission in certain areas. In response, rather than locking down the whole country again, the government has brought in local lockdowns in affected areas. Lakshmi Manoharan, Medical Epidemiologist at ERGO tells us how to make local lockdowns a success.

New study reveals Oxford coronavirus vaccine produces strong immune response

21 July 2020

A team of scientists at Oxford University’s Jenner Institute and Oxford Vaccine Group has taken the next step towards the discovery of a safe, effective and accessible vaccine against coronavirus. The results of the Phase I/II trial published in The Lancet indicate no early safety concerns and induces strong immune responses in both parts of the immune system.

Plug COVID-19 research gaps in detection, prevention and care

15 July 2020

The global research community asks for the right research in the right places for COVID-19. The Global Health Network, the African Academy of Sciences and UK Collaborative on Development Research release a report in Nature that calls for the use of research evidence on the optimal implementation of public health interventions for COVID-19 in varied global settings.

Can big countries realistically eliminate COVID-19 without a vaccine?

14 July 2020

The UK should change its COVID-19 strategy to try to eliminate COVID-19 even without a vaccine rather than simply managing the disease. New Zealand has effectively managed to eliminate the virus, but can states with much larger, denser populations that have experienced much bigger outbreaks hope to do the same? Or is it more realistic to accept that the disease is likely to continue to circulate at some level and plan for that? Lakshmi Manoharan, Medical Epidemiologist with ERGO, tells us we should focus on reducing the amount of community transmission first before allowing economic and social activity to resume as normal.

Asymptomatic individuals shown to transmit SARS-CoV-2 infection in Vietnam

3 July 2020

Dr Le Van Tan in OUCRU, in collaboration with the Hospital for Tropical Diseases and the Department of Health, has shown that it is common for people who are infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 (SARS-CoV-2) to have no symptoms whatsoever. By testing quarantined people in Vietnam, his team was able to detect asymptomatic individuals. The virus disappeared faster from the bodies of the asymptomatic carriers than from that of symptomatic individuals, but it appeared that some of them still managed to pass the infection on to others.

Malaria elimination at risk as Ghana economy improves

2 July 2020

Ghana cut malaria deaths by 65% from 2005 to 2015. In a paper published in the Malaria Journal, Rima Shretta estimates that the COVID-19 outbreak threatens this progress, as lockdowns limit access to health facilities and preventive malaria interventions have been interrupted. Ghana’s transition to a lower middle income status results in lower donor support for malaria control, and the government must step up to avert a feared rise in cases.

Clinical trials on hydroxychloroquine/ chloroquine in COVID-19. Statement in response to damaging recent events

5 June 2020

On 4 June 2020, after a week of increasing scientific concern and scrutiny, first The Lancet, then a little over an hour later the New England Journal of Medicine, retracted studies that were based on inaccessible data, provided by the Surgisphere corporation. The studies have been extremely damaging to chloroquine and hydroxychloroquine COVID-19 clinical trials around the globe. Here is MORU’s statement in response to these events.

Mitigating the Socio-economic impacts of physical distancing in African countries

3 June 2020

What are the health and socio-economic impacts of physical distancing in African countries and how can they be mitigated? This work by Edwine Barasa and colleagues reviews the effects of physical distancing restrictions and recommends that African countries need to consider the broader net benefit of measures that they choose to implement and to adapt and localize their response to align with the contextual realities of the continent, and to optimize expected benefits of physical distancing, while minimizing the undesired impacts.

Results of remdesivir trial released

30 April 2020

The results of a placebo-controlled randomised trial of remdesivir in COVID-19 patients have been published in the Lancet. Supported by the ISARIC Support Centre, scientists in China launched a trial of remdesivir in patients hospitalised with COVID-19. The results found no clinical benefit from use of the drug; however, while not statistically significant, the time to clinical improvement and duration of invasive mechanical ventilation were shorter in people treated with remdesivir.

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