World Malaria Day: Perspectives from Three Scientists
World Malaria Day: Perspectives from Three Scientists
3i Global Health Group
Nearly half of the world’s population is at risk from malaria, with 282 million cases worldwide in 2025. Malaria had been eradicated from the United States during the 1950s but since 2023, locally acquired cases have been reported in 5 states.
World Malaria Day on April 25 raises awareness of global efforts to end malaria. The disease is caused by Plasmodium parasites that are spread by mosquitos. Climate makes it harder to control malaria because changes in temperature, humidity and rainfall influence survival of malaria-carrying mosquitos.
Malaria is more common in low and middle-income countries, where healthcare resources are limited, and the disease burden is compounded by poor living conditions. Children under five and pregnant women are particularly vulnerable. Today, the global fight against malaria still faces significant challenges.
Meet University of Utah malaria researchers, Tracey Lamb, PhD, Ellen Leffler, PhD, and Paul Sigala, PhD, and discover their motivations for researching malaria and how they are tackling the disease
Researchers Answer Your Questions
Why do you study Malaria?
Tracey Lamb: I travelled after completing my undergraduate degree and saw first-hand how much of a burden malaria can be in countries where malaria parasites are spread freely by mosquitos. Now I undertake research in Cameroon, Central Africa, at the Centre Pasteur Cameroon alongside my collaborator Dr. Lawrence Ayong. There I have witnessed the devastation on the faces of parents bringing their child into the emergency room due to deadly complications of malaria. My goal is to contribute to understanding how the parasite causes severe disease with the aim of designing new approaches to prevent children dying of malaria.
Ellen Leffler: As an evolutionary geneticist, I am fascinated by malaria because it has plagued humans for thousands of years and left striking marks on the human genome. At the same time, malaria remains a major global health challenge, disproportionately affecting young children in malaria-endemic regions. I’m driven to study this long history and ongoing evolutionary battle because it has the potential to inform new ways to fight this disease.
Paul Sigala: After college, I spent two years teaching high school chemistry in Ghana as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer. I observed first-hand the devastating impacts of infectious diseases like malaria on the health of students, colleagues, and neighbors. This experience catalyzed my interest in using basic science to tackle challenging biomedical problems like malaria. Our research goals are to understand how the malaria parasite has adapted to survive and grow inside the human body and to use this knowledge to identify new treatment strategies to reduce the global burden of this terrible disease.
How can your research help eliminate malaria?
Lamb: I am an immunologist who studies how the immune system can successfully kill malaria parasites after a mosquito bite. My research is leading to discoveries that will eventually be fed into the design of better vaccines to limit the transmission of the parasites from mosquitos.
Leffler: My research aims to understand how genetic variation protects some people from malaria, and how parasites can overcome these defenses. By studying these naturally occurring interactions, we can identify the biological mechanisms that make infection and severe disease more or less likely. Ultimately, understanding this evolutionary “arms race” could help us design strategies that are more robust and longer-lasting in the effort to eliminate malaria.
Sigala: Malaria parasites are small, single-cell pathogens that infect and destroy human red blood cells. Our research studies how parasites and the proteins that they produce enable them to survive and grow inside human red blood cells. This knowledge can lead to new medicines that target these proteins and prevent parasites from growing in the human body.
What are the biggest challenges we face in the eradication of malaria?
Lamb: In 2007, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation made eradication of malaria one of its goals. Nearly half of the world’s population lives in areas at risk for malaria transmission. However, 10 countries have been declared malaria free since 2020, demonstrating that it is possible to eradicate malaria. In my opinion, one of the biggest threats to eradicating malaria is the global cuts in funding to fight malaria. This has reduced availability of interventions such as insecticide-treated bed nets and malaria medicines to those who need it the most.
Leffler: A big challenge in eradicating malaria is that parasites can become resistant to the drugs used to treat it. Many of the drugs introduced in the past are no longer effective because of the spread of resistance mutations. If today’s frontline drugs fail, malaria may become harder to treat, causing more suffering and slowing the progress towards eradication.
Sigala: The malaria parasite mutates rapidly to resist the medicines that block its growth in the human body. Development of parasite resistance to current anti-malarial drugs is a major challenge. A second critical problem is the recent cutback to global funding of malaria control efforts that include bed nets and medicines. These challenges are exacerbated by conflicts and a lack of resources that disrupt malaria prevention and treatment in key areas of Africa.
When should people consider protecting themselves against malaria?
Lamb: When travelling overseas always check in with a travel clinic to seek advice on your risk of catching malaria and take the necessary anti-malarial medications as prescribed by a doctor.
Leffler: When visiting any location where there is ongoing risk of malaria transmission—especially during high transmission seasons—you can reduce risk of infection by avoiding mosquito bites with insect repellent and wearing long-sleeved clothing.
Sigala: If you will be traveling to an area with active malaria cases, a travel clinic can advise you on appropriate medicines you can take to prevent malaria and on ways to reduce exposure to mosquitoes that spread the parasite that causes malaria.
What gives you hope in the fight against malaria?
Lamb: Recent developments in anti-malaria vaccines for babies living in malaria endemic countries is the start of a more sustainable method to protect children against malaria. These vaccines will require substantial improvements but now we have something to improve upon. This has given me hope that one day we will have more efficacious vaccines that will stop the spread of malaria, thus moving closer to eradicating this disease from more countries and saving thousands of lives.
Leffler: I think it’s unlikely there will be a single “magic bullet” that eliminates malaria on its own. Instead, success will come from combining many approaches, each contributing to reducing transmission and disease. Advances in vaccines, mosquito control, drug resistance monitoring, and treatment strategies are all contributing. Technological advances and coordinated public health efforts are improving the ability to monitor malaria and react to changes in near real time. Seeing progress in so many areas at once gives me hope that we can continue to drive malaria down and move closer to eradication.
Sigala: Recent developments in malaria vaccines are very exciting. These new vaccine formulations have shown great promise at preventing malaria in small trials and are currently being expanded. An effective vaccine that can prevent or reduce severe malaria in young children has tremendous potential to overcome current and historical challenges to malaria prevention and treatment, and to save countless lives.