We finally have malaria vaccines. The next hurdle: Distributing them.

Malaria kills half a million people a year in Africa. We can prevent that — if we act fast enough.

  WHO greenlights the world's first malaria vaccine — but it's not a perfect shot

The world's arsenal against malaria just got a fancy new bazooka. But it's not the easiest weapon to deploy, it only hits its target 30 to 40% of the time, and it's not yet clear who's going to pay for it.

  Why Is Malaria on the Rise Again?

In recent decades, strategies for combating malaria have emphasized distributing easy-to-use commodities – including insecticides, insecticide-treated mosquito nets, and artemisinin-based antimalarial drugs – and expanding access to prompt diagnosis. This approach is reaching its limits.

 A Malaria Mystery, Partly Solved: What Happens When the Rains End?

Each year malaria kills roughly 400,000 people, most of them children and pregnant women in Africa. Scientists have long known that most of those fevers and deaths occur during the rainy months, when mosquitoes abound. But how does the disease persist during the long dry seasons, when almost no one falls ill and there are few mosquitoes to carry the tiny malaria parasite from one human host to another?

 A pivotal test of malaria vaccine is set to begin. Can it live up to its promise?

Researchers are preparing to launch a pivotal test of an important malaria vaccine this month — one that global health leaders believe could eventually lead to big reductions in the number of cases and deaths worldwide. Despite those high hopes, there are also concerns that the theoretical benefits of the vaccine, made by GSK, might not translate into the real world.

 At Long Last, Can Malaria Be Eradicated?

Two new vaccines may finally turn back an ancient plague. But in unexpected ways, their arrival also complicates the path to ending the disease.

 Effect of the ABO blood group on susceptibility to severe malaria: A systematic review and meta-analysis

This study showed higher probability of severe P. falciparum infection among individuals with blood group A, B and AB than in those with blood group O.

 Malaria Vaccine Took 30 Years. It's Still a Work in Progress

With more than 5,000 genes, it’s a complicated microbe, and the pursuit of a vaccine has led to numerous dead ends, Hamel said. Early development of the Glaxo shot began around 1984. As the pilot starts in Africa, scientists are looking to the potential next generation of technology. “This is the first malaria vaccine,” she said, “not the last.”

'Gene Drive' Mosquitoes Engineered to Fight Malaria

Mutant mozzies could rapidly spread through wild populations.

A Warning From the Heart of Malaria Research

Despite a sharp drop in malaria-related deaths over the past decade, a veteran doctor here, in the heart of the world’s malaria belt, says now is the time to wage a large-scale battle with the mosquito-borne disease.

Advances and challenges in malaria vaccine development

Thus far, we have no malaria vaccine, and it is not clear that a highly effective vaccine is in the pipeline. This may be due in part to a relative scarcity of research funding; in recent years global funding for malaria vaccine development has barely reached 25% of the approximately $684 million invested in the development of a still-elusive HIV/AIDS vaccine.

Cheryl Cole's Killer Vacation?

Malaria is a potentially fatal disease but the good news is that it is preventable, so plan wisely and prepare for healthy and happy travels - GlaxoSmithKline

Fatal Malaria in the U.S. More Common Than Previously Known

Serious and fatal bouts of malaria in the United States are a greater problem than has been previously reported, according to a new study. Most appear to be in immigrants who have made summer or Christmas visits to their home countries without taking precautions against infection.

Fighting malaria is going to take more than just nets

In January, the New York Times highlighted how insecticide treated nets meant to protect people from mosquitoes and malaria are now being used to haul fish in Africa. Among those using these nets to catch fish, hunger today is a bigger risk than malaria tomorrow. For those who have experienced life in countries like Nigeria, where malaria is endemic, the report does not come as a surprise. The nets are an important tool for preventing malaria, but without investing in infrastructure and engaging effectively with communities, it’s hardly surprising that these nets are not always used as intended.

For 40 years, no one knew this woman discovered a malaria cure. Now she's won a Nobel.

For years, Tu's role in unlocking artemisinin was shrouded in secret — until researchers at the National Institutes of Health looked into the drug’s history and realized that Tu deserved credit for her work. Only in 2011, when she won the prestigious Lasker prize for medical research, did the Chinese Communist Party move to preserve her childhood home. In a statement, Tu called artemisinin "a gift for the world’s people from traditional Chinese medicine," and urged researchers to turn to herbs in the search for cures for infectious diseases.

Malaria - Are We Finally Approaching Eradication?

Maybe, just maybe, malaria has met its match. It remains to be seen.

Malaria Is On Your Doorstep. It Happened To Me, It Could Happen To You

This doesn’t just happen to people at the other side of the globe. This nearly killed me.

Malaria study challenges warmer world predictions

A world with "rampant" malaria transmission is often seen as an inevitable consequence of global warming. But a new study radically challenges existing ideas of how the disease will spread with rising temperatures.

Malaria's Last Stand

Malaria's Last Stand is an expository look at the ongoing burden of one of humanity's oldest diseases.

Philanthropy King: Bill Gates Gives Away $4.6 Billion, Unveils New Campaign To Combat Malaria

In addition to distributing insecticide-treated bed nets, the Gates Foundation is also seeking to educate the public about the fight against malaria.

Public health challenges and prospects for malaria control and elimination

The ongoing efforts in research and development for new antimalarial drugs, more sensitive point-of-care rapid diagnostic tests and new insecticides need further innovation and substantial strengthening. Clearly, efforts should focus not only on Plasmodium falciparum but also and increasingly on Plasmodium vivax, the neglected human malaria parasite. Addressing these challenges in a comprehensive and timely way will allow us to sustain the gains made so far and make further progress in control and progressive elimination.

Rapid Malaria Tests Work, but With Unexpected Drawbacks

A study found that rapid tests have greatly improved treatment, but that many people who tested positive still did not get the proper drugs or were overprescribed antibiotics.

Report outlines challenges and opportunities facing malaria research

Research aiming to improve the delivery of proven, cost-effective interventions to reduce the burden of malaria must go hand-in-hand with studies to understand the biology underlying infection and develop new antimalarial tools, a report from the Wellcome Trust has concluded.

The Civil War and Malaria

A patriotic appeal to fight against a common scourge in 1861: malaria.

The Fever

In recent years, malaria has emerged as a cause celebre for voguish philanthropists. Bill Gates, Bono, and Laura Bush are only a few of the personalities who have lent their names—and opened their pocketbooks—in hopes of stopping the disease. Still, in a time when every emergent disease inspires waves of panic, why aren’t we doing more to tame one of our oldest foes? And how does a pathogen that we’ve known how to prevent for more than a century still infect 500 million people every year, killing nearly one million of them? In The Fever, journalist Sonia Shah sets out to answer those questions, delivering a timely, inquisitive chronicle of the illness and its influence on human lives.

The Imperial Cocktail

Eventually it became clear that cinchona bark could be used not only to treat malaria, but also to prevent it. The bark—and its active ingredient, quinine powder—was a powerful medicine. But it was also a powerful new weapon in the European quest to conquer and rule distant lands.

The Malaria Misstep: Let African Scientists Solve Our Own Problems

A long-term outcome of my own experience with malaria and that of my friend is that I have dedicated my professional career to finding innovative ways to stop the spread of malaria infection in Africa. One of the biggest obstacles I see is that despite Africans suffering from malaria infection the most, 92 percent of malaria deaths in 2015 occurred on the African continent, the majority of the research against malaria takes place outside the African continent. This makes no sense.

The Parasite That Lures Mosquitoes to Humans

new study in Science actually illuminates how the parasite in human blood draws mosquitoes, manipulating the bugs into flying malaria-dispersal machines.

The WHO vs. the Tea Doctor

For once, an herbal remedy actually works. Why are malaria experts against it? The tea comes from sweet wormwood (Artemisia annua), the Chinese plant that is a source for the world's most powerful anti-malarial treatments, which combine artemisinin derivatives with an older class of drugs. It can also be grown in wetter parts of Africa, and a year’s supply costs no more than a few dollars.

To overcome challenges in Africa's malaria response, focus on testing, treatment at community level

"Significant investment in malaria research has yielded effective interventions such as insecticide treated nets (ITNs), indoor residual spraying (IRS) and artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) to control the disease, but its burden continues to be felt among the poorest,"

Two Ways of Making Malaria-Proof Mosquitoes

By harnessing the microbes that live inside these bloodsucking insects, scientists are trying to stop them from spreading disease.

We're Closer Than Ever to Wiping Out Malaria

We're closer than ever to eradicating malaria, but not there yet. If we don't double down, we risk losing all the progress that's been made.

We’re winning the war on malaria — and saving millions of lives in the process

We're actually at a point where the World Malaria Day theme — "End Malaria For Good" — no longer sounds like a pipe dream. The Nature study found that the campaign to fight malaria has reduced the transmission rate of the disease so dramatically in areas across Africa that about 121 million people now live in places where the disease could plausibly be eradicated...

What It's Like to Have Malaria 50 Times

Dr. John Lusingu has dedicated his career to studying malaria and searching for a vaccine.