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« Back to NewsArtists explore the problems of poor quality and fake medicines
16 October 2019
@Oxford MORU Public Engagement
When we are ill, we trust that the medicines that we take will make us feel and be better. But what if our pills do not contain the ingredients listed on the packaging? The art exhibition ‘What’s in your medicines?’ explores how substandard and falsified (‘fake’) medicines can affect our health, by showcasing the striking and original artwork of 12 South East Asian artists.
Congratulations new TropMed professors
9 October 2019
@Oxford Awards & Appointments KWTRP MORU
Oxford Medical Sciences Divisional Panel has conferred the title of Professor on three members of our Centre. Ben Cooper - Professor of Epidemiology, Sassy Molyneux - Professor of Global Health and Piero Olliaro - Professor of Poverty Related Infectious Diseases were awarded these titles in recognition of their distinction in their respective fields and contributions to the research, teaching and administration of the Department and we congratulate them on their success!
New research supports co-administration of primaquine with artemisinin-based combination therapies for P. vivax malaria
8 October 2019
An individual patient data meta-analysis of 2,017 patients from 19 studies has found a high risk of recurrence following treatment of P. vivax malaria with artemether-lumefantrine (AL) and dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DP) unless they are co-administered with primaquine. The research supports recommendations that these artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACT) should be combined with primaquine.
Oxford Vice-Chancellor Louise Richardson visits MORU and SMRU
18 September 2019
MORU and SMRU were delighted and honoured to host the University of Oxford Vice-Chancellor Prof Louise Richardson and her party during her visit to Thailand on 1-4 September. Accompanying the Vice-Chancellor were Jeremy Woodall (Director of Development (Asia)), Frewyeni Kidane (Fundraiser for Southeast Asia), Cher Wu (Asia Development office) and Ed Gibbs (NDM Director of Finance and Operations).
MORU's new Critical Care Asia Network: 42 ICUs in 9 countries
18 September 2019
In partnership with the Wellcome Innovations Flagship Programme, MORU launched its Critical Care Asia Network project with its first investigators’ meeting on 19-20 Aug in Bangkok. The project will establish an Asian ICU network across 42 ICUs in nine countries and implement a setting-adapted electronic registry.
Antimalarial treatments less effective in severely malnourished children
24 July 2019
MORU researchers have found that severe malnutrition is associated with lower exposure to the antimalarial drug lumefantrine in children treated with artemether-lumefantrine, the most common treatment for uncomplicated falciparum malaria. The study, which is the first to specifically address this, calls urgently for further research into optimised dosing regimens for undernourished children.
Rapidly spreading multidrug-resistant parasites render frontline malaria drug ineffective in southeast Asia
23 July 2019
The findings of two studies, published in The Lancet Infectious Diseases journal, reveal that by 2016–2018 malaria parasites resistant to both artemisinin and its widely used partner drug piperaquine represented more than 80% of the parasites circulating in northeast Thailand and Vietnam, despite having only emerged in western Cambodia in 2008.
New study shows faster way to cure vivax malaria
19 July 2019
A large clinical trial in Africa and Asia has shown that a 7 day course of high dose primaquine, a drug used to treat P. vivax malaria, is well tolerated and just as effective as the current standard 14 day regimen, according to a study published this week in The Lancet. These findings have important implications for the treatment and elimination of vivax malaria in the Asia Pacific.
Research to investigate the prevalence and causes of rickets in remote NW Myanmar
17 July 2019
Medical Action Myanmar and MOCRU health teams identified a number of children with rickets in remote areas of Myanmar. MOCRU director Frank Smithuis presented the findings of clinical screening to the Minister of Health, alongside treatment results and a plan for a large survey to investigate the prevalence of vitamin D deficiency and its underlying causes.
Village drama against malaria project wins University Public Engagement with Research Award
10 July 2019
Awards & Appointments MORU Public Engagement
A project using drama that engages with village communities in Cambodia, led by Professor Phaik Yeong Cheah of the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit and Nuffield Department of Medicine, has won a Project award in this year’s Vice-Chancellor’s Public Engagement with Research Awards. The project also won the Vice-Chancellor’s Choice Award for Public Engagement with Research.
Longer follow-up needed for malaria treatment in pregnant women
2 July 2019
New research by Makoto Saito and colleagues at SMRU found that a longer follow-up is required to assess antimalarial drug efficacy in pregnant women. This was found across all drugs assessed in low malaria transmission settings. The report’s authors have called for guidelines specifically for pregnant women and further investigation of optimal follow-up periods in high malaria transmission settings.
BBC News: Big data 'can stop malaria outbreaks before they start'
12 June 2019
A ground-breaking study in Bangladesh co-lead by MORU has found that using data from mobile phone networks to track the movement of people across the country can help predict where outbreaks of diseases such as malaria are likely to occur, enabling health authorities to take preventative measures.
Bangkok Premiere of Under the Mask
4 June 2019
MORU, SMRU and FilmAid Foundation invite you to the Bangkok Premiere of Under the Mask on the 17th June. This drama film is based on real testimonies of TB patients. The story follows the lives of our characters as they journey from diagnosis to treatment and help from the SMRU TB team, and explores how each discovers their capacity to overcome the deadly disease and share their knowledge and experience with others. Made in the local language, this film provides an engaging and inspiring tool for raising TB awareness in the community.
Pint of Science Thailand 2019 in Bangkok and Chiang Rai
10 May 2019
This year, the Pint of Science festival in Thailand is in not one but two cities! Join us in Bangkok at WeLearn on 21st-22nd May, and at Hungry Wolf's in Chiang Rai on 25th May.
Join SMRU for Hand Hygiene Day
10 May 2019
The 5th May is World Hand Hygiene Day. To raise awareness among staff and the Thai-Myanmar border populations of the importance of hand washing, a simple, proven effective way of infection prevention, the SMRU infection control committee worked with the SMRU clinics and Mae Sot lab staff to create this fantastic video.
Fever and Antibiotic use, a theatre initiative in Myanmar by MOCRU
7 May 2019
How to change urban Myanmar communities' antibiotics usage habits? Check out 'Fever and Antibiotic Use', a Wellcome-funded community theatre initiative by MOCRU Research Coordinator Dr Myo Maung Maung Swe. Myo uses forum theatre to engage Yangon residents in a lively manner so they can learn when to use antibiotics – or not.
Applications are now open for our Short Course on Mathematical Modelling of Infectious Diseases
3 May 2019
This 5-day course is aimed at participants with a basic understanding of infectious disease modelling and an aptitude for the R programming language. On completion participants will be able to write and analyse the dynamics of a simple mathematical model and use it to consider cost and intervention scenarios. September 23-27 at St Anne’s College, Oxford
World Malaria Day seminar 2019 - Antimalarial treatments for vulnerable groups
30 April 2019
To mark World Malaria Day on 25 April WWARN’s Dr Makoto Saito and Professor Joel Tarning from the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit and Head of WWARN Pharmacometrics presented their work on prevention and treatment of malaria in vulnerable groups at a seminar hosted by the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health
Eliminating malaria in the Asia-Pacific could save 400,000 lives
25 April 2019
Increased funding is needed to eliminate malaria across 22 Asia-Pacific countries and save an estimated 400,000 lives, according to research published in a new collection of studies on Wellcome Open Research.
Cherry's story: a career launched by first-hand experience and a good mentor
3 April 2019
How do you go about building all the skills you need at the start of your research career? Cherry Lim from our MORU unit in Bangkok, Thailand, was lucky to find a good mentor who guided her through this journey, but her own ceaseless curiosity and excitement about research were also important.
Tracking resistance results presented at Westminster, UK Houses of Parliament
26 March 2019
Rob van der Pluijm presented encouraging findings from TRAC II trial analyses of Triple Artemisinin Combination Therapies to the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Malaria & NTDs on March 19th in Westminster at the Houses of Parliament.
Mass drug administration against malaria seen effective
6 March 2019
Lorenz Von Seidlein tells SciDev.Net that mass drug administration as “presumptive treatment” to clear the parasite reservoir was carried out in eight villages spread across Cambodia, Lao PDR, Myanmar and Vietnam. By the third month, the prevalence of P. falciparum had decreased by 92 % in those villages. Over the subsequent nine months, P. falciparum infections returned but stayed well below baseline levels, showing that MDA can stop transmission of falciparum malaria and reduce its prevalence in SE Asia, where resistance to artemisinin has hampered elimination efforts.
Katherine Plewes earns Canadian grant for KIMORU based study
1 March 2019
Working closely with the University of British Columbia (UBC)'s Support Program to Advance Research Capacity (SPARC), MORU Malaria Researcher Dr Katherine Plewes was recently awarded a 3-year, C$971,551 grant for her study on Evaluating the renoprotective effect of acetaminophen in pediatric severe falciparum malaria: A randomized controlled trial.
Guide to sepsis management offers comprehensive, practical advice for resource-limited settings
26 February 2019
On 12 Feb 2019, Professor Arjen Dondorp published a new book: Sepsis Management in Resource-limited Settings. The result of a 3-year project led by MORU and the European Society of Intensive Care Medicine (ESICM), the book was written by critical care physicians from around the globe.
DeTACT study begins; will develop two new, safe malaria treatments
12 February 2019
On 24-25 Jan 2019, investigators met in Bangkok to launch the Developing Triple Artemisinin-based Combination Therapies (DeTACT) Project. Led by MORU and funded by UKaid and the UK Department for International Development (DfID), DeTACT is a large, 14 site trial in 8 African and 5 Asian countries that will study the efficacy, safety and tolerability of two Triple Artemisinin Combination Therapy (TACT) combinations, using combinations of existing antimalarial drugs.
Fighting malaria in the remote reaches of Cambodia
16 January 2019
Malaria causes nearly half a million deaths worldwide every year. Ninety percent of them are in sub-Saharan Africa, where poor infrastructure limits delivery of drugs. But now there is worry that those drugs are losing effectiveness as disease strains become resistant. PBS News Hour special correspondent Fred de Sam Lazaro reports from Cambodia, where scientists are researching and tracking new outbreaks.
Malaria in Cambodia on Sky News
16 January 2019
Doctors in Northern Cambodia are trialling a new drug combination therapy in a bid to stop the spread of drug resistant strains of malaria.
Sir David Weatherall, 1933-2018
18 December 2018
An inspiring doctor and scientist of great compassion and intellect, Sir David Weatherall died 8 Dec 2018. A Nuffield Professor of Medicine, founder of the MRC Weatherall Institute of Molecular Medicine and a member of Wellcome’s Board throughout the 1990s, Sir David was instrumental in the creation of MORU back in 1979.
The large footprint of the Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health
12 December 2018
This article, written by Professor Nick Day at MORU and published in the November 2018 issue of the Oxford Alumni Newsletter, describes in a nutshell all the good work our Centre is doing to promote Global Oxford.
After MQPH 2018, new collaborations to fight substandard medicines
21 November 2018
@Oxford Conferences & meetings MORU
Over 200 delegates travelled from more than 50 countries to attend the first ever conference on Medicine Quality and Public Health (MQPH 2018) in Oxford from 23-28 Sept. The conference, at Keble College, brought together experts in pharmacy, public health, chemistry, law, sociology, governance and ethics, from medicines regulatory authorities, academia, pharmaceutical industry, NGOs, and international organisations.
The fight against malaria has reached a standstill
20 November 2018
Progress against malaria has stalled, and the disease remains a significant threat to billions of people despite the expensive, decades-long efforts to contain it. In an encouraging development, MORU reported complete success in curing hundreds of patients in Southeast Asia with new three-drug combinations mixing fast-acting artemisinin with two longer-lasting drugs. It it hoped that triple therapy should become the standard for malaria treatment.
Reviewing the Cardiovascular Safety Profile of Antimalarial Drugs
9 November 2018
A systematic review analyses the results of 177 trials conducted between 1982 and 2016, including 18,436 patients who underwent electrocardiographic evaluation during malaria clinical trials. Nick White and colleagues found that serious cardiovascular side effects, which include sudden cardiac death, are very rare in the treatment of malaria with quinoline antimalarials. The work emphasises the importance of continued pharmacovigilance with the increasing use of quinoline antimalarials in mass treatment strategies such as intermittent preventative treatment and mass drug administration.
Positive results in fight against malaria in remote parts of Myanmar
7 November 2018
The incidence of malaria has continued to drop dramatically in remote rural villages in Myanmar after community workers trained only to detect and treat malaria began providing basic health care as well as malaria services, researchers affiliated with MOCRU, our Myanmar-Oxford Clinical Research Unit, have said.
Fake drugs: the global industry putting your life at risk
7 November 2018
@Oxford Conferences & meetings MORU Publication
The manufacture and distribution of medicines is a global industry, tainted by fake and substandard products. Not only might these drugs not work as expected, but some are even contributing to antimicrobial resistance. So, what’s in your medicine cabinet? This is an article on Mosaic, a Wellcome publication
The Oxford Statement - lets demand medicines we can trust
7 November 2018
@Oxford Conferences & meetings MORU Publication
Every person has the right to expect that when they use a medical product, whether medicine, vaccine or diagnostic kit, it works. But too often, that is not the case. Substandard medical products result from errors, negligence or poor practice in manufacturing, transportation and/or storage. In contrast, falsified products result from criminal fraud. Both innovative and generic products are affected.
Sparking collaborations and discussions on substandard and falsified medicines at MQPH 2018
29 October 2018
@Oxford Conferences & meetings MORU
Over 200 delegates traveled from more than 50 countries to attend the first ever conference on Medicine Quality and Public Health (MQPH) in Oxford from 23-28 September 2018. The conference brought together experts from academia, public health, pharmacy, chemistry, law, ethics, social sciences, public engagement, health policy, with national medicines regulatory authorities, NGOs, international organizations and donors. Conference partners presented the latest evidence on substandard, falsified and unregulated medicines, and discussed strategies to tackle this global challenge.
Centre for Tropical Medicine and Global Health nominated for MRS prize
27 October 2018
CTMGH have been nominated for the Market Research Society President's Medal, awarded annually to an organisation that conduct extraordinary research but who might not be recognised through the usual channels. Our Centre is noted for its ingenious use of freely available online satellite images to gath data on the use of antibiotics in unmapped and inaccessible villages in rural Thailand and Laos. Researchers use the images to identify representative clusters of potential participants.
Provide basic health services in remote villages to eliminate malaria
24 October 2018
The incidence of malaria cases continued to drop dramatically in rural and remote Myanmar villages after community workers trained only to detect and treat malaria began providing basic health care as well as malaria services. Adding the health services to malaria control benefitted the villagers access to health and improved malaria services – paving the way for malaria elimination.
Global health by the pint
24 October 2018
Come and meet us at the ASTMH conference, to enjoy science over a pint and bite to eat: Outbreaks, from Ebola to Zika on Mon 29th Oct. Mosquitoes, the most dangerous animals in the world on Tue 30th. Global health terror night: bats, mites and other creepy crawlies on Wed 31st. We will be at The Vintage, 3121 Magazine St, New Orleans, 7-9pm
Myanmar researchers awarded research grants
12 September 2018
Dr Myo Maung Maung Swe and Htet Htet Aung from our MOCRU unit in Myanmar were awarded grants by the International Society for Infectious Diseases and Wellcome. Myo Maung will study antibiotics use and antimicrobial resistance public awareness in Myanmar; Htet Htet will conduct a study on Ethical challenges when offering pregnant women with Hepatitis B short course treatment to prevent transmission.
Medicine Quality and Public Health, a pioneering conference to address the global threat of poor quality medicines
4 September 2018
@Oxford Conferences & meetings MORU
A pioneering academic conference will bring together, for the first time, people from all over the world dealing with the problem of poor quality medicines and their impact on public health. The Medicine Quality & Public Health conference will take place at Keble College, Oxford, 23-28 Sept 2018. It will provide a unique opportunity for health authorities, scientists, pharmacists, lawyers and international organisations to discuss the problem and outline the necessary steps to tackle the issue on a global scale.
Study details high hidden economic costs of antibiotic consumption
4 September 2018
A team of researchers led by Yoel Lubell at MORU and IDDO used data from the USA and Thailand to link the consumption of antibiotics with the direct and indirect costs of treating patients for five drug-resistant bacterial infections.
Malaria’s ticking time bomb
26 July 2018
Scientists are racing to stamp out the disease in Southeast Asia before unstoppable strains spread. This article features MORU, SMRU and colleagues, and explains what is happening and what we are doing to eliminate drug-resistant malaria in Southeast Asia before it spreads
Professor Rose McGready recognised by the American Society of Tropical Medicine & Hygiene
19 June 2018
ASTMH nominated Professor Rose McGready, SMRU Deputy Director, as an Honorary International Fellow. Rose received the prestigious award in recognition of outstanding accomplishment by an “individual not an American citizen who has made eminent contributions to some phase of tropical medicine and hygiene”. Rose will formally receive her award at the ASTMH Annual Meeting, to be help 28 Oct-1 Nov in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Experts to seek consensus on tackling poor quality medicines
15 June 2018
@Oxford Conferences & meetings MORU
The proliferation of poor quality medical products is an important but neglected public health problem, threatening millions of people all over the world, both in developing and wealthy countries. A pioneering conference will bring leading professionals from all over the world to Oxford, September 23-28, to discuss strategies for tackling poor quality medical products on a global scale.
Small children and pregnant women may be underdosed with widely used antimalarial drug
13 June 2018
Current recommended treatment regimens for the most widely used medicine for uncomplicated Plasmodium falciparum malaria may be sub-optimal for small children and pregnant women according to a study led by Professor Joel Tarning.
Safety doubts unwarranted, important anti-malarial drug DHA-PPQ is safe to use
8 June 2018
One of the world’s most widely used anti-malarial drugs is safe to use, say researchers, after a thorough review and analysis of nearly 200,000 malaria patients who’d taken the drug dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PPQ). There is such a low risk of sudden unexpected death from DHA-PPQ, one of the world’s most effective medicines to treat malaria, that there is no need to limit its current use.
Tackling poor quality medicines
30 May 2018
In this Science Blog published on Oxford University website, Prof Paul Newton, Head of the Medicine Quality Group at the Infectious Diseases Data Observatory (IDDO) and the MORU Tropical Health Network and NDM Professor of Tropical Medicine i, explains the need for new strategies for tackling poor quality medical products.
New age-based regimen for single low-dose primaquine to block malaria transmission
25 May 2018
Primaquine can be used to prevent the transmission of falciparum malaria from human to mosquito. Bob Taylor and colleagues at the Mahidol Oxford Research Unit (MORU) have developed an age-based regimen for single low-dose primaquine to block the transmission of malaria in sub-Saharan Africa.
Medicine Quality & Public Health Conference
23 May 2018
@Oxford Conferences & meetings MORU
The first-ever dedicated academic conference to discuss Medicine Quality & Public Health bringing together people from a diversity of sectors: public health, national regulatory authority, pharmacy, biomedical, chemistry, law, ethics, cultural and social sciences, the pharmaceutical industry, international organisations, NGOs, national procurement centres, also scientists working on internet and pharmaceutical forensics. 23rd-28th September 2018 at Keble College, Oxford. Submit your abstract by 1 June 2018