Posts Tagged ‘Johns Hopkins’

If I Build It, Will They Come?

January 11th, 2011

On January 24, 2011, the Johns Hopkins Center for Communication Programs/K4Health Project in collaboration with the World Health Organization, USAID and the Knowledge Management Working Group will host a two-week virtual discussion on communities of practice entitled “If I Build It, Will They Come? Sustaining Active Communities of Practice for Global Health”.

The purpose of this two-week discussion is to share experiences in using virtual communities of practice (CoPs) for global health and learn about innovative approaches to engagement, participation, and measurement of CoP success. CoP leaders from K4Health, WHO, Health Information for All by 2015 (HIFA2015) and the Global Alliance for Nursing and Midwifery(GANM) will steer the discussion, but we encourage you to ask questions, share your experiences, tips and lessons learned.

Click here to join “If I Build It, Will They Come? Sustaining Active Communities of Practice for Global Health” virtual discussion, January 24-February 4, 2011.

Future Vaccine May Block the Bite of Malaria Transmitting Mosquitoes

January 15th, 2010

Mosquito

Mosquitoes are renowned for being pesky little insects that can leave you scratching your arms during the warm months, but for individuals residing in proximity to the Anopheles genus—the only species of mosquito which can transmit malaria—the bite of an infected mosquito is more than a nuisance and can be fatal if not promptly treated with the proper medication.

Each year nearly 900,000 people die of malaria, with the majority of deaths occurring in children under the age of five in Sub-Saharan Africa.  With this devastating toll in mind, researchers from the PATH Malaria Vaccine Initiative (MVI), Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Health and Sabin Vaccine Institute have formed a partnership to develop a novel vaccine—a “transmission blocking” vaccine that would stop the malaria parasite from developing in the mosquito, and thus, block the transmission of malaria from mosquitoes to humans.

Over the next 18 months, MVI, Johns Hopkins, and Sabin will collaborate to produce and characterize an antigen that can activate the body’s defenses to disrupt the complex human-mosquito transmission cycle of malaria. When an infected mosquito takes blood from a person vaccinated with the AnAPN1 vaccine—which field research indicates is capable of blocking transmission of the two deadliest malaria parasites, Plasmodium falciparum and P. vivax—antibodies in the humans’ blood will prevent the parasite from attaching to and invading the mosquito’s gut.

Learn More Here