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A scientist in Thailand raises mosquito colonies so she can study a new malaria drug. The insects are quite spoiled — they'll eat only live human blood. So she feeds them "breakfast" each day from her right arm.
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Many modern day liqueurs, like Campari and Pimm's, started off as 19th century medicinal tonics made to cure an array of ailments, including malaria. So if you're sipping a French aperitif or an absinth cocktail this holiday season, chances are you're also imbibing a bit of malaria history.
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With publicity campaigns, radio jingles and pinups, the government helped eliminate the parasitic disease. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is still fighting malaria at home and abroad.
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Myanmar and other parts of Southeast Asia are awash with shoddy and phony malaria drugs. Some fakes are almost indistinguishable from authentic drugs. The counterfeits can be deadly for patients, but they also threaten to undermine major weapons against the disease.
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Global deaths from malaria have dropped sharply in the past decade, thanks in part to powerful drugs called artemisinins. But on the border between Thailand and Myanmar, doctors are starting to see cracks in artemisinin's armor. The medicine is working more slowly, and sometimes not at all.
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Gin, Jesuit priests, communist bravado — the history of malaria is littered with strange bedfellows, as our video shows. The parasite has proved to be a wily foe, frustrating human efforts to control it time and time again.
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After months of debate, the Global Fund announced plans to wind down a controversial pilot project that subsidizes malaria drugs in Africa. Some health workers in the U.S. fault the decision, saying it doesn't address the major challenges of treating malaria in poor countries.
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Southeast Asia is a hot spot for drug-resistant malaria. In the past few years, parasites in two regions have become less responsive to the last, best drug we have against malaria. Researchers report that this new type of drug resistance may be spreading to Vietnam and central Myanmar.
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An experimental vaccine for malaria reduces infants' risk of the disease by about a third. That's less than researchers had hoped for, given the vaccine's effectiveness in toddlers, but doctors say it's enough to prevent many high fevers, seizures and deaths in a lot of African children.
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At health clinics along the Thai-Myanmar border, malaria is getting tougher to treat as resistance to medication grows. Doctors say it may be time to focus on eradicating malaria before the drugs lose potency.