Placing community health workers in remote areas key to eliminating Falciparum malaria in Myanmar and GMS
Medical Action Myanmar successfully eliminated falciparum malaria in Eastern Myanmar within six years, employing 172 community health workers for early diagnosis and treatment. Their approach, integrating basic health services with malaria care, led to a rapid reduction in both falciparum and vivax malaria cases. This cost-effective strategy challenges traditional, labour-intensive methods, emphasizing the importance of community health workers in achieving malaria elimination in challenging, remote areas.
Developing new antibiotics to safeguard modern medicine
The increasing use of antibiotics globally and has exacerbated the evolution of multidrug-resistant bacteria which can no longer be treated by many antibiotics which were previously effective. This causes multi-drug resistant infections in both humans and animals that are no longer easily treatable and can lead to death.
Understanding antimicrobial resistance to implement change
Robust and strong surveillance systems across the world, especially in low-and middle-income countries are essential to tackle Anti-Microbial Resistance (AMR). At the national level, data can help inform health policies and responses to health emergencies. At the global level, this data can provide early warnings of emerging threats and help identify long–term trends.
The Big Shot - Oxford, Africa and the R21 malaria vaccine
"What we desperately need are new tools to improve malaria control, and this is the first vaccine that can be deployed at scale, that will be affordable, and can be used widely in Africa on a scale of hundreds of millions of doses each year" - Professor Adrian Hill
Cooling the world without heating the planet
Cooling is necessary for the health and quality of life of billions of people around the world. Extreme heat increases the risk of heart attacks, strokes and other cardiovascular diseases, exacerbates chronic conditions, and can lead to dehydration, heat exhaustion, and even death, especially in vulnerable populations - it is estimated that there were over 60,000 heat-related deaths in Europe in 2022.
Vaccines: From lab to licensing
The standard for testing and monitoring of vaccines is higher than it is for most other medicines because they are one of the few medical treatments given to healthy people - mainly healthy children. This means that the level of acceptable risk is much lower than it might be in some other treatments. It can take many years for a vaccine to pass through all the stages described in the animation. In the case of the MenB vaccine, for example, it took 15 years from the first publication of the genome (the complete set of genetic information in an organism) to the vaccine being licensed for use.
Infecting Minds: The Past, Present and Future of Vaccine Hesitancy
Infecting Minds: The Past, Present and Future of Vaccine Hesitancy is an interdisciplinary project exploring vaccine hesitancy in South Africa and the UK. We are interested in understanding barriers to vaccination, and learning how beliefs and behaviours around vaccines develop, persist, and spread in different settings. We explore these using perspectives from social sciences, theology, history, and community engagement. This film documents our research as well as our engagement work with schools in Durban, Somkhele, and Oxford over 2022 and 2023.
Fight against drug-resistant malaria in critical new phase: 'We are in danger of losing our current antimalarial drugs to resistance.'
On World Malaria Day 2023, the global fight against malaria has hit a critical point in Africa. Recent studies have confirmed that malaria parasites resistant to artemisinin have emerged in Rwanda, Uganda and the Horn of Africa. Artemisinin-based combination therapies (ACTs) are the first line treatment for malaria and there is no immediate replacement available. The loss of ACTs will put millions of Africans, mostly children under the age of 5, at risk of drug-resistant malaria infection and death.
A test to combat antimicrobial resistance
When you’re sick all you want to do is feel better as soon as possible. A team of researchers are developing a new test for bacterial infections to make that possible, while also contributing to more effective antibiotic stewardship – a key component of global efforts to combat the dangerous rise of antibiotic-resistant infections.
Can you make a dengue fever forecast?
More than half the world’s population is at risk from dengue fever, a viral infection that is spread via the bite of an infected mosquito. While some cases of the disease can be mild, others can be extremely dangerous and even fatal – particularly if someone has contracted the virus previously. When cases of dengue fever are high, those at risk can take some preventative measures, such as wearing clothing that covers as much skin as possible, using mosquito nets at night, and avoiding standing water. As such, some way of predicting high levels of the virus before they arrive would be invaluable. This is exactly what Dr Sarah Sparrow and her colleagues at the DART (Dengue Advanced Readiness Tools) project are hoping to achieve – using climate data to create a forecast, similar to a pollen forecast, for dengue fever.
'Preventing pandemics at the source – stopping spillover' with Prof Peter Hudson
While many of those working on emerging diseases expected a pandemic like COVID, and in many ways this one could have been much worse, there is now increased concern about how to prevent the next one. Once a novel infection starts spreading in humans it is almost impossible to prevent a pandemic, so Professor Peter Hudson, a disease ecologist, will talk about our understanding of viral spillover from bats, and what we really could do, to stop the next pandemic.
Science with Sanjula: Professor Sir Rory Collins
Leading human health forward: Professor Sir Rory Collins discusses his early life and career in three continents, his love of statistics and his introduction to randomisation. He goes on to discuss his successes with randomised trials and meta-analyses, and the creation of large prospective studies, including the UK Biobank.
Antimicrobial Resistance: A Dance with Nature
"The process of creating new antibiotics and understanding bacteria with particular mechanisms of resistance is like a dance..." Antibiotics have saved countless lives since their introduction during the Second World War. They are used to treat infections like pneumonia, and underpin most operations like knee replacements, and cancer therapies. Unfortunately, bacteria naturally evolve to become resistant to these drugs, in a phenomenon called ‘antimicrobial resistance’ (AMR). This causes antibiotics to be ineffective in routine treatments and surgeries, threatening lives across the globe. In this video, we hear from researchers at the Ineos Oxford Institute for Antimicrobial Research (IOI), about the 'what', 'why' and 'where' of resistance, and how their research aims to help tackle the issue.
'Childhood vaccine mandates: are they tackling the right problem?' with Prof Katie Attwell
Oxford Vaccine Group at the University of Oxford working on health, society, and policy topics. ... Undervaccination results from both deliberate vaccine refusal and access or logistical problems. These barriers are commonly thought to affect very different social groups. However, popular and political discourse emphasises the vaccine refusing parent as the policy target of new vaccine mandates. Discourses around the need for strict mandatory policies may or may not acknowledge disadvantaged populations facing access problems, and the policies themselves may or may not differentiate between underserved populations and those who deliberately refuse vaccines. This talk explores how these two distinct categories of under-vaccinated populations are treated within vaccine mandates in Australia, Italy, France, and California, and why it matters.
Science with Sanjula: Dr Mehrunisha Suleman
Tackling racism in healthcare: Dr Mehrunisha Suleman talks about why tackling racism and inequalities in health and healthcare is so important, drawing on her research and experiences.
Science with Sanjula: Professor Sir Richard Peto
Halving premature deaths: Professor Sir Richard Peto describes half a century of research seeking moderate reductions in big causes of death.
Oxford Martin School Health Videos
Videos from the Oxford Martin School that show how different disciplines work together to advance human health and improve quality of life.