The World Health Organization (WHO) www.who.int estimates that 212 million new cases of malaria and 29,000 malaria deaths occurred in 2016, mostly in Africa. Although numerous vaccine candidates to prevent malaria are in development, none have been approved for widespread use.
Effective malaria drugs are available but some have severe side effects and may be difficult to procure in remote regions. They are also losing their effectiveness in some places where malaria causing parasites have developed resistance.
The National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) www.niaid.nih.gov part of NIH has funded about $9 million in first-year funding subject to availability for seven malaria research centers worldwide.
In 2010, NIAID created the International Centers of Excellence for Malaria Research (ICEMR) www.niaid.nih.gov/research/icemr-program-overview in regions where malaria is endemic. Now the new funding, three new and four existing centers in 14 countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America will be established and helped.
Under previous awards ICEMR researchers found that some current rapid diagnostic tests ae failing to detect malaria in some regions because malaria parasites do not always express the antigen the test is designed to detect. Also, ICEMR researchers have confirmed a significant shift in the behavior of some malaria-carrying mosquitoes, perhaps in response to malaria control measures.
The seven malaria research centers receiving funds are:
- Amazonian Center of Excellence in Malaria Research- University of California San Diego
- Multidisciplinary Research for Malaria Control and Prevention in West Africa- University of Sciences
- Malaria Transmission and the Impact of Control Efforts in Southern and Central Africa-Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
- Program for Resistance, Immunology, surveillance & Modeling of Malaria in Uganda-University of California, San Francisco
- Environmental Modifications in Sub-Saharan Africa: Changing Epidemiology, Transmission and Pathogenesis of Plasmodium Falciparum and P. vivax Malaria-University of California, Irvine
- Southeast Asia Malaria Research Center-Pennsylvania State University, University Park
- Myanmar Regional Center of Excellence for Malaria Research-University of Maryland School of Medicine, Baltimore