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.
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.
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.
Lorenz Von Seidlein tells SciDev.Net that mass drug administration as \u201cpresumptive treatment\u201d 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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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\u2019s Board throughout the 1990s, Sir David was instrumental in the creation of MORU back in 1979.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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\u2019s in your medicine cabinet? This is an article on Mosaic, a Wellcome 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.
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.
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.
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 \u2013 paving the way for malaria elimination.
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
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.
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.
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.
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
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 \u201cindividual not an American citizen who has made eminent contributions to some phase of tropical medicine and hygiene\u201d. Rose will formally receive her award at the ASTMH Annual Meeting, to be help 28 Oct-1 Nov in New Orleans, Louisiana.
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.
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.
One of the world\u2019s 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\u2019d taken the drug dihydroartemisinin-piperaquine (DHA-PPQ). There is such a low risk of sudden unexpected death from DHA-PPQ, one of the world\u2019s most effective medicines to treat malaria, that there is no need to limit its current use.
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.
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.
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
On 10 May 2018, SMRU Deputy Director Rose McGready was awarded the Alumni Award for Service to Humanity by the University of Sydney. The Alumni Award recognizes the personal contribution of alumni who, through service to philanthropy, improve the lives of those in need. It also seeks to recognize the significant involvement of Sydney alumni in projects that enrich local or international communities.
The rapid elimination of potentially untreatable P. falciparum malaria in South-East Asia is possible, according to a ground-breaking new study published today in The Lancet. The study authors say that setting up community-based malaria clinics for early diagnosis, treatment and monitoring, combined with mass antimalarial drug administration (MDA) to everyone living in \u2018hotspot\u2019 areas.
ITV News has travelled across the world to report on the growing global threat of the spread of deadly drug-resistant 'super bugs'. In the first of their three-part series, they investigate the frontline fight against deadly malaria parasites in South East Asia threatening a new global emergency.
18 April 2018 (London) \u2013 The United Kingdom\u2019s Department for International Development (DFID) announced that it will commit \u00a39.2 million (USD 13.15 million) of research funding to DeTACT (Development of Triple Artemisinin Combination Therapies), a large multi-centre trial in 5 Asian and 10 African countries that aims to develop two new safe and effective malaria treatments using combinations of existing antimalarial drugs.
As the second largest international donor, the UK has been at the forefront of efforts to reduce the number of cases for many years by investing in treatment, prevention and research, including the fight against the threat of drug resistance. The UK has announced further support for the fight against malaria to save more than 120,000 lives ahead of a Malaria Summit tomorrow with Commonwealth leaders.
Pailin, a small settlement nestling in tropical rainforest near Cambodia\u2019s border with Thailand, lies at the heart of a region that has seen successive waves of resistance to malaria drugs arise in local people and then spread across the globe. As new waves of the disease threaten our health, worried scientists want to conduct a mass inoculation in a Cambodian region where new vaccines always seem to stop being effective.
Giving paracetamol (acetaminophen) to patients ill with severe malaria made them less likely to develop potentially fatal kidney failure. Each year severe malaria causes close to half a million deaths globally. Acute kidney injury occurs in 40% of adults and at least 10% of children with severe malaria, killing an estimated 40% of these adults and 12-24% of the children. The study reported for the first time that giving regular doses of paracetamol protects the kidney in adult patients with severe falciparum malaria.
FIEBRE aims to design new evidence-based guidelines to manage fever, thereby ensuring that patients get drugs that give them the best chance of recovery, and thereby help stop the spread of antimicrobial resistance (AMR), a major global health problem.
In collaboration with Cambodian authorities, MORU are running the Village Drama Against Malaria project for the third year. The project, which runs in 10 remote villages in March 2018, aims to create awareness about malaria prevention and early treatment.
Melioidosis is a bacterial infection that quietly causes thousands of deaths each year. Meet Direk Limmathurotsakul, the doctor who made it his mission to make the world take notice.
Myanmar-Oxford Clinical Research Unit (MOCRU) and partner Medical Action Myanmar (MAM) are performing a scrub typhus survey among fever patients attending the Puta-O clinic, a small, picturesque, secluded town surrounded by snow-capped Himalayan foothills in the far north of Myanmar over 1,500 km from Yangon.
To fight the growing global threat of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, food labels around the world should include an \u2018antibiotic footprint\u2019 section that clearly shows the type and amount of antibiotics used to produce that food, say scientists in a study led by Associate Professor Direk Limmathurotsakul.
Interested in science? Looking for a fun night out? Want to know what Pint of Science is all about? Come and join us for a one-night-only special, Casa Azul in Bangkok on the 1st February, where three world-class researchers will delve deep into the world of science.
Wellcome is announcing new collaborations with six institutions to find new ways to translate scientific discoveries into real world impact. The partnership with MORU will focus on closing the gap between research and implementing interventions, building capacity and expertise to support early translation to improve the health of people in low-income countries.
Professor Arjen Dondorp and colleagues are inching their way across the fringes of five Southeast Asian countries to test a triple combination therapy of antimalarial drugs. Results from the trial, being conducted in rural corners of Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Thailand and Vietnam, are due by mid-2018. This trial is also mentioned in the New York Times.
A collaboration between the University of Oxford and Thailand\u2019s Mahidol University has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2017 Newton Prize for its project aiming to understand the early stages of scrub typhus in Thailand.
Congratulations to Professor Sir Nick White, elected to the National Academy of Medicine (US). Election to the Academy is considered one of the highest honors in the fields of health and medicine and recognizes individuals who have demonstrated outstanding professional achievement and commitment to service.
Work at the Cambodia Oxford Medical Research Unit (COMRU) and Angkor Hospital for Children (AHC) has highlighted the importance of melioidosis, infection by the soil-dwelling bacterium Burkholderia pseudomallei, as a cause of severe illness in Cambodian children.
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