“Two new task forces being [established] by U.S. Africa Command [Africom] have set their sights on one of the biggest killers on the continent: the mosquito,” the American Forces Press Service reports in an article on the U.S. Department of Defense webpage. “Ninety percent of the world’s malaria-related deaths are reported in Africa, and the disease kills some 600,000 African children each year,” the news service notes, adding, “Africom incorporates malaria prevention into much of its theater engagement, distributing mosquito nets and teaching new diagnostic techniques during training events throughout Africa.”

On the first stop of a 10-day tour of Africa, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton stopped at the Phillipe Maguilen Senghor Health Center in Dakar, Senegal, where Awa Marie Coll-Seck, the country’s minister of health, “explained to Secretary Clinton how these operational centers dramatically improve maternal and child health,” according to a post in USAID’s “IMPACTblog.” Coll-Seck “also noted that USAID-supported distribution of insecticide impregnated mosquito nets across the country had drastically reduced the incidence of malaria,” according to the blog, which adds that Clinton “was pleased to hear that the United States is playing a key role in helping meet one of its biggest challenges: decentralizing services so they are available at the village level throughout the country.” In an address several hours later, “Clinton invoked the Senghor center … saying she was highly impressed by the integrated nature of the facility” and that “[i]t was a successful model she hoped could be duplicated throughout Senegal and the entire West African region” (Taylor, 8/1).

An antiretroviral (ARV) drug given to HIV-positive children “can boost the preventive power of a key malaria drug,” according to a study conducted in Uganda and presented last week at the 19th Conference on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infections, ScienceNow reports. The researchers, led by clinicians Diane Havlir of the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF), and Moses Kamya of Makerere University College of Health Sciences, “compare[d] two different cocktails of anti-HIV drugs, only one of which contained protease inhibitors, in HIV-infected children who live in a malarial area of [Uganda]” and found “that one protease inhibitor indeed helped stave off malaria.”

Friends of the Global Fight: 27 Million Lives Saved Through Global Fund-Supported Programming “In its annual Results Report released [Wednesday], the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria (the Global Fund) announced that its investments to fight the world’s deadliest infectious diseases have saved more than 27 million lives…

Devex: Asia-Pacific turns to innovative finance to stamp out malaria “With grant funding for malaria drying up, global health advocates have come to this year’s World Economic Forum on ASEAN with a pitch for more innovative financing — including from institutions such as the Asian Development Bank. The Asia-Pacific region…

Devex: 6 conversations you missed at the World Economic Forum on ASEAN (Rogers/Ravelo, 9/14). The Guardian: Affordable vaping for smokers in poor countries branded ‘a human rights issue’ (Austin, 9/14). The Guardian: ‘A lurking beast’: polio casts shadow over Papua New Guinea independence day (Martin/Lyons, 9/15). The Guardian: ‘She didn’t…

BBC: Malaria ‘completely stopped’ by microbe “Scientists have discovered a microbe that completely protects mosquitoes from being infected with malaria. The team in Kenya and the U.K. say the finding has ‘enormous potential’ to control the disease. … The researchers are now investigating whether they can release infected mosquitoes into…

NIH: NIH announces $1 million prize competition to target global disease diagnostics “The National Institutes of Health has launched a $1 million Technology Accelerator Challenge to spur the design and development of non-invasive, handheld, digital technologies to detect, diagnose, and guide therapies for diseases with high global and public health…

ABC: Researchers find way to block spread of deadly malaria parasite (Macdonald, 12/18). Borgen Magazine: Global Health Partnerships in Kenya (Kiessling, 12/18). CIDRAP News: Yellow fever outbreak intensifies in Nigeria (Schnirring, 12/17). Devex: Q&A: Funding imbalance threatens Yemen’s recovery, UNDP expert says (Welsh, 12/18). Miami Herald: Can this scent lure…

PMI: Test, Treat, and Track: Strengthening Malaria Response Capabilities in Sierra Leone This post discusses a public-private partnership in Sierra Leone that aims to build capacity for testing, treating, and tracking malaria. The post notes the “public-private partnership in Sierra Leone was a collaboration between USAID’s Human Resources for Health…