Successful malaria control has meant a drop in mortality rates worldwide but it is still an important disease. Therapies using artesunate, a derivative of artemisinin drugs, aim to kill malaria parasites before they mature. These therapies have high success rates and need to be developed. General care of malaria patients also needs to be improved.
\n \n\n \n \nStudies are based on health systems clustered around five main topics: malaria, service delivery & access, information for decision making, governance and financing. Professor English leads efforts to develop multidisciplinary links with Oxford through the Oxford Health Systems Research Collaboration (OHSCAR).
\n \n\n \n \nOver the years, social scientists have developed a programme of empirical work on research ethics. This work is based on an understanding that while the ethics of human subjects research may be universal, there can be big differences across contexts and circumstances in key ethical issues or principles.
\n \n\n \n \nRickettsial diseases such as scrub typhus are important causes of fever in southeast Asia especially in rural communities. Discovered quite recently and not big killers, these diseases are among the most under-reported and under-diagnosed illnesses that are both treatable and preventable. Rickettsial studies at he Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) focus on the epidemiology and incidence of the disease using hospital-based fever studies in Thailand and Laos. Our research unit has developed highly improved acute diagnosis of rickettsial illness. MORU also has ongoing studies to determine the pathophysiological mechanisms of scrub typhus infection.
\n \n\n \n \nThe Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) is a collaboration between the University of Oxford and Mahidol University, and was established with the Wellcome Trust in 1979. MORU aims to fight the infectious tropical diseases affecting rural communities in Asia and elsewhere in the developing world. MORU's malaria research aims to directly improve the treatment of the disease globally. It's researchers focus on the treatment of severe malaria, the spread of antimalarial drug resistance, and the pathophysiology of falciparum and vivax malaria. These studies are used to formulate novel adjuvant therapies, and have been translated into recommendations for the use of artemisinin based combination therapies.
\n \n\n \n \nAccurately diagnosing infections is particularly challenging in tropical environments. Researchers at the Mahidol Oxford Tropical Medicine Research Unit (MORU) are working to develop effective and practical means of diagnosing and treating malaria and other neglected tropical diseases, such as dengue fever. The development of rapid tests for dengue, similar to pregnancy tests, allow rapid and acurate diagnostics in the field.
\n \n\n \n \nInfluenza, SARS & Ebola Research on emerging infectious diseases can only be conducted during outbreaks. Although virology has improved, a well calibrated and effective public health response is often lacking. Epidemiological and clinical research as well as mathematical modelling will give us answers during the epidemics and help us provide better diagnostics and better treatments.
\n \n\n \n \nThe number of people who die of tuberculous meningitis reduces depending on how early you get treatment for the disease. There are therefore two approaches to improving clinical outcomes, the first is to diagnose the condition faster so clinical intervention can happen sooner. The second is to improve treatments so that they are more effective.
\n \n\n \n \nMalaria is the most important parasitic disease of man. Although most of the deaths occur in Africa, drug resistance has emerged from South-East Asia. Artemisinins, which are plant-derived compounds originally from the Chinese Materia Medica, are still today the best treatment for malaria, however, other drugs are also showing promising results. Clinical trials are also undertaken to find out the correct doses. All these developments contribute to our progress in getting malaria under control.
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