A team of researchers at
Michigan State University (MSU) are celebrating a major federal grant to battle malaria in the Southern African nation of Malawi.
Terrie Taylor, an osteopathic physician and professor of internal medicine, will lead the team that received the $9.1 million grant from the
National Institutes of Health’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.She and her team of other researchers will study several aspects of malaria treatment and prevention, including infected patients, malaria parasites and the mosquitoes that carry the parasites.
Taylor said the goal is to collect enough data to find ways to tailor treatment and prevention methods in different geographic locations.
“We will be able to tailor prevention and control strategies to specific seasons – dry and rainy – and to locations, highland and lowland, urban and rural,” Taylor said.
Malaria is one of the world’s deadliest diseases. In Malawi alone, 4.4 million cases were reported in a single year. Children are at the greatest risk. As many as one million die of the disease in sub-Saharan Africa every year.
Source: MSU University Relations
Writer: Louise Knott Ahern
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