Morning Briefing

Current tools for combating malaria, such as artemisinin-combination therapy (ACT) and increasing coverage of insecticide-treated bednets (ITN) "could dramatically reduce the burden of malignant malaria on parts of Africa if a comprehensive, sustained intervention programme were in place," according to a study published this week in PLoS Medicine, CORDIS News reports. "According to the study, half of the world's population is at risk of malaria infection, and every year it claims the lives of nearly 1 million people in sub-Saharan Africa," the news service adds. "Plasmodium falciparum, one of the species of Plasmodium that causes malaria in humans, is transmitted by Anopheles mosquitoes that normally bite (and inject the deadly parasites) at night," CORDIS News reports (8/11).