Malaria News

October 29, 2025

Top Headlines

Scientists Turn Flower Fragrance Into a Mosquito Killer

Oct. 27, 2025 — A team of researchers has developed a floral-scented fungus that tricks mosquitoes into approaching and dying. The fungus emits longifolene, a natural scent that irresistibly draws them in. It’s harmless to humans, inexpensive to produce, and ...

Thousands Fall Ill as Mosquito Fever Explodes Across Southern China

Oct. 10, 2025 — China’s Guangdong Province is battling its worst-ever chikungunya outbreak, with thousands of infections spreading across major cities and nearby regions. Transmitted by Aedes mosquitoes, the disease underscores how climate change, urbanization, ...

Ivermectin: The Mosquito-killing Pill That Dropped Malaria by 26%

July 26, 2025 — A groundbreaking study has revealed that the mass administration of ivermectin—a drug once known for treating river blindness and scabies—can significantly reduce malaria transmission when used in conjunction with bed ...

COVID-19 Protein Triggers Immune Attacks on Healthy Cells — But a Common Drug Can Stop It

June 24, 2025 — Scientists have uncovered a stealthy tactic used by the SARS-CoV-2 virus: one of its proteins can leap from infected cells to healthy ones, effectively tricking the immune system into attacking the ...

Trees Vs. Disease: Tree Cover Reduces Mosquito-borne Health Risk

May 30, 2025 — A study finds small-scale tree cover in Costa Rica boosts biodiversity while limiting dangerous mosquito ...

Genetic Deep Dive Dispels Fear of Hybrid Worm Threat

May 30, 2025 — Parasitic worms that infect humans are not interbreeding with those that infect cattle as previously thought. This is good news for when it comes to controlling schistosomiasis, a disease caused by these worms that affects more than 200 million ...

Bed-netting Prototypes to Target Malaria-causing Parasites

May 21, 2025 — Scientists have fabricated two bed netting prototypes targeting malaria-causing blood parasites. They designed netting systems to deliver antimalarial drugs called Endochin-like Quinolones (ELQs) that destroy Plasmodium parasites transmitted by ...

Family of Parasite Proteins Presents New Potential Malaria Treatment Target

May 19, 2025 — Researchers have shown that the evolution of a family of exported proteins in the malaria-causing parasite Plasmodium falciparum enabled it to infect ...

Novel Molecular Maneuver Helps Malaria Parasite Dodge the Immune System

May 16, 2025 — Researchers have discovered how a parasite that causes malaria when transmitted through a mosquito bite can hide from the body's immune system, sometimes for years. It turns out that the parasite, Plasmodium falciparum, can shut down a key set of ...

Rare Disease Drug Nitisinone Makes Human Blood Deadly to Mosquitoes

Mar. 27, 2025 — A study found when patients take the drug nitisinone, their blood becomes deadly to ...

Mosquito Pain Receptors Are Less Sensitive During Extreme Heat

Mar. 12, 2025 — Hotter temperatures may render natural insect repellents less effective against mosquitoes, according to a new ...

Promising New Class of Antimalarial Drugs Discovered

Feb. 20, 2025 — Epigenetic inhibitors as a promising new antimalarial intervention strategy? A new study identifies an inhibitor of gene regulation that specifically kills the malaria ...

Latest Headlines

updated 12:01pm EDT

Cellular Regulator of mRNA Vaccine Revealed... Offering New Therapeutic Options

Apr. 3, 2025 — A team of researchers has uncovered a key cellular mechanism that affects the function of mRNA vaccines and therapeutics. Their study provides the ...

Researchers Use a 'Trojan Horse' Approach to Develop New Antimalarial Drugs

Mar. 6, 2025 — Antimalarial drug resistance is a pressing issue in combating the spread of malaria worldwide. In a new study, researchers discovered a key process where malarial parasites take up a human blood cell ...

Unraveling the Complex Role of Climate in Dengue Dynamics

Feb. 14, 2025 — A research team has unveiled new insights into how weather influences the spread of dengue fever. The study identifies temperature and rainfall as critical factors driving the global surge in dengue ...

Causes of Fevers of Unknown Origin in Sub-Saharan Africa

Feb. 11, 2025 — A new retrospective, laboratory-based observational study provides detailed insights into the causes of fevers of unknown origin in sub-Saharan Africa. Scientists examined 550 patients from Guinea ...

Essential Genome of Malaria Parasite Plasmodium Knowlesi Mapped

Feb. 6, 2025 — A new, comprehensive map of all the genes essential for blood infections in Plasmodium knowlesi (P. knowlesi), a parasite that causes malaria in humans, has been generated. The map contains the most ...

Global Groundwater Sulfate Distribution Map Uncovers Public Health Risks for 17 Million People

Feb. 4, 2025 — A recent study has revealed a startling public health threat: About 17 million people are at risk of gastrointestinal problems due to excessive ...

Scientists Explain How a Compound from Sea Sponge Exerts Its Biological Effects

Feb. 3, 2025 — Girolline, a compound extracted from the sea sponge Pseudaxinyssa cantharella, has been investigated for possible antitumor effects and also found to ...

High Uric Acid Levels Linked to Deadly Outcomes in Children With Severe Malaria

Jan. 27, 2025 — Researchers have uncovered a significant connection between elevated uric acid levels and life-threatening outcomes in children with severe ...

Mosquitoes Can Be Extra-Bitey in Droughts

Jan. 16, 2025 — Mosquitoes can survive prolonged droughts by drinking blood, which helps to explain why rates of mosquito-borne illness don't always decline in dry ...

Researchers Discover Class of Anti-Malaria Antibodies

Jan. 4, 2025 — Antibodies that bind to a previously untargeted portion of the malaria parasite could lead to new monoclonal antibody treatments and vaccines for ...

Research Points the Way to Lifesaving Antiparasitic Drugs While Unlocking a Scientific Mystery

Dec. 20, 2024 — A breakthrough in understanding how a single-cell parasite makes ergosterol (its version of cholesterol) could lead to more effective drugs for human leishmaniasis, a parasitic disease that afflicts ...

Discovery Provides Hope in Fighting Drug-Resistant Malaria

Dec. 19, 2024 — Researchers may have found a new target in fighting malaria -- a cholesterol-managing protein called ...

Unlocking Worm Strategies: A Path to Innovative Vaccines and Therapies

Dec. 9, 2024 — A research team has uncovered a molecular strategy employed by worm parasites (helminths) to evade host immune defenses. This discovery opens new avenues for the development of innovative vaccines ...

A New Approach to Predicting Malaria Drug Resistance

Dec. 9, 2024 — Researchers analyzed the genomes of hundreds of malaria parasites to determine which genetic variants are most likely to confer drug ...

Getting to the Bottom of Things: Latrine Findings Help Researcher Trace the Movement of People and Disease

Dec. 6, 2024 — A researcher has uncovered evidence of intestinal parasites in a 500-year-old latrine from Bruges, Belgium, and while the finding may induce queasiness in some, it is expected to provide important ...

Natural 'Biopesticide' Against Malaria Mosquitoes Successful in Early Field Tests

Dec. 4, 2024 — An experimental bacteria-derived biopesticide is highly effective in killing malaria-carrying mosquitoes, including those that have developed resistance to chemical pesticides, according to initial ...

Stopping Severe Malaria by Harnessing Natural Human Antibodies

Nov. 20, 2024 — Scientists have identified human antibodies capable of targeting the proteins responsible for severe malaria, potentially paving the way for new vaccines or treatments. Using organ-on-a-chip ...

Study Uncovers First Evidence of Resistance to Standard Malaria Treatment in African Children With Severe Malaria

Nov. 14, 2024 — An international team of researchers has uncovered evidence of partial resistance to artemisinin derivatives -- the primary treatment for malaria -- in young children with severe ...

New Guideline Provides Treatment Recommendations for Restless Legs Syndrome

Nov. 13, 2024 — A new clinical practice guideline provides updated recommendations for the treatment of restless legs syndrome. The guideline reflects the latest scientific evidence and recommends significant ...

From Pets to Pests: Researchers Explore New Tool to Fight Disease-Carrying Insects

Nov. 12, 2024 — Researchers are testing a product commonly used to treat ticks and fleas on pets to target fly and mosquito larvae with the goal of helping reduce the spread of diseases carried by these ...

Deaf Male Mosquitoes Don't Mate

Nov. 5, 2024 — Romance is a complex affair in humans. There's personality, appearance, seduction, all manner of physical and social cues. Mosquitoes are much more blunt. Mating occurs for a few seconds in ...

Bacteria Breakthrough Could Accelerate Mosquito Control Schemes

Nov. 4, 2024 — Mosquito larvae grow faster if they're exposed to particular bacteria, according to a new study that could help global health ...

Scientific Discovery Scratching Beneath the Surface of Itchiness

Oct. 25, 2024 — A collaborative study has revealed how a specific species of mammal-targeting worms found a way around itch, allowing researchers to better understand the mammalian urge to ...

Maternal Antibodies Interfere With Malaria Vaccine Responses

Oct. 24, 2024 — Maternal antibodies passed across the placenta can interfere with the response to the malaria vaccine, which would explain its lower efficacy in infants under five months of age, according to new ...

In a Warming World, Public Needs to Know More About Protections from Mosquito-Borne Illnesses

Oct. 8, 2024 — Driven in part by climate change, epidemics from mosquito-spread viruses are occurring with increasing frequency. Yet few among the American public are worried about getting West Nile or dengue virus ...

Scientists Take a Major Step in Understanding How to Stop the Transmission of Malaria

Oct. 1, 2024 — Scientists have uncovered how the parasite that causes malaria orchestrates their cell division -- which is key in enabling the parasite to transmit this deadly disease. They show how they have ...

Scientists Design New Drug to Fight Malaria

Sep. 26, 2024 — A team has designed a new drug against malaria and identified its mechanism of ...

Study Identifies Areas of Europe at Risk from Dengue Fever Due to Spread of Asian Tiger Mosquito

Sep. 10, 2024 — As Europe grapples with the growing threat of tropical diseases brought by the Asian tiger mosquito, new research is enabling scientists to accurately predict towns across the continent where there ...

Making Baby Food Safer: Arsenic and Cadmium Contamination Levels in Rice

Sep. 5, 2024 — Researchers found that flooded rice fields tend to have higher amounts of arsenic and lower amounts of cadmium while drier rice fields have lower amounts of arsenic and higher amounts of cadmium. The ...

Mapping the Sex Life of Malaria Parasites at Single Cell Resolution, Reveals the Genetics Underlying Malaria Transmission

Aug. 26, 2024 — Malaria is caused by a eukaryotic microbe of the Plasmodium genus, and is responsible for more deaths than all other parasitic diseases combined. In order to transmit from the human host to the ...